What makes drinking unique in comparison to other risk factors is that the costs to society from these second-hand effects are by several estimates more extensive than the direct costs to the drinkers. This was found in a recent Swedish parliamentary inquiry2, and similar conclusions have been published from other countries, e.g. Scotland and Australia. Another type of evidence comes from the ranking of substance-related harm in the UK, where the harm caused to others from alcohol was estimated to be almost double that to the user. Furthermore, the combined harm to both drinkers and others from alcohol was estimated to be almost double the combined harm to smokers and others from tobacco.