Booze costs Norway a million working days

A new study hints that alcohol consumption may be costing the Norwegian society well over a million lost working days a year.

Researcher Roar Gjelsvik told the Aftenposten newspaper that while most people enjoy a drink without negative side effects, some miss work or perform in impaired fashion.

Gjelsvik estimates the number of lost working days linked to alcohol consumption ranges from 1.2 to 1.3 million a year. This loss of productivity costs the country about $300 million a year.

Hard figures are not easy to come by since absences related to alcohol are often disguised as being due to more acceptable reasons.

“It is however completely clear that absences and costs due to alcohol are high and that there is a notable potential for improvement,” Gjelsvik said.

Previous studies showed that alcohol primarily results in short-term absences. Between 44 to 59 per cent of absences last only one day, but between 14 to 19 per cent last up to three days and two per cent of long-term absences are due to alcohol abuse.