Disclosure Statement

ISFAR critiques are prepared by a group of scientists, physicians, and specialists who conduct research related to alcohol and its impact on the human body and disease. They do not receive any payment for their contributions. Discussions of emerging research and critiques are confidential among ISFAR’s scientific members until they are made public through posting on the website: www.alcoholresearchforum.org. The distribution of ISFAR press releases to health editors, the medical community, public health agencies, and relevant policymakers about new critiques on the ISFAR website is managed by Alcohol in Moderation (AIM) in the United Kingdom. AIM is a nonprofit organisation that publishes a journal (www.alcoholinmoderation.com) ten times annually, summarising new information regarding the use and misuse of alcohol from scientists, government bodies, the World Health Organization, and nongovernmental organisation (NGO) groups. The AIM journal is funded by subscriptions, which include some companies and associations in the beverage industry, as well as NGOS, government organisations, researchers, and institutions. None of the professors, physicians, or specialists on the AIM Council or the ISFAR board receives any payment for their reviews and analyses published in AIM and on the ISFAR website. The two co-directors, however, do receive an honorarium for coordinating the critiques.

It needs to be documented that ISFAR members are independent, peer-review-published, and respected scientists and medical specialists funded principally by governments, academic institutions and not-for-profit organisations.

Conflict-of-Interest Statements for the ISFAR Co-directors and Chair

Creina S. Stockley reports previous grants from the Australian wine industry including the National Wine Foundation; Australian government bodies such as Wine Australia, Cancer Australia, [Australian] National Health & Medical Research Council, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, DrinkWise Australia, and Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation; and the Friedreich Ataxia Research Alliance, The University of Adelaide, The University of Melbourne, [Australian] The University of Newcastle, The University of Alabama, University Victor Segalen Bordeaux, Universidad Catolica de Chile, and the State Government of South Australia. Dr. Stockley was employed from 1991 to 2017 by the not-for-profit The Australian Wine Research Institute and had paid consultancies from Alcohol Beverages Australia, International Centre for Alcohol Policies, Wine in Moderation, and Alcohol in Moderation.

Henk F. J. Hendriks reports previous grants from various Dutch governmental bodies such as OostNL, TIFN, and ZonMW as well as personal fees for lectures from Brewers of Europe, Belgium; Fundación Cerveza y Salud, Spain; CNRIFFI China; Dutch Oenologists Academy, The Netherlands; and Brewers of Europe, Brussels. Dr. Hendriks also had paid consultancies from Carlsberg, Heineken, Danone, IARD, 73100, Geosilica, AIM, and TNO and an educational grant from Diageo plc.

R. Curtis Ellison reports receipt of no funds from government or the alcoholic beverage industry for the past 10 years and serves as voluntary Chair of the International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research (ISFAR). Until 2013, when it ceased operations, he was the director of the Institute on Lifestyle & Health at Boston University School of Medicine, which received support from individuals, groups, associations, and companies including from the wine or beverage alcohol industry. These were unrestricted donations to Boston University to support the work of the Institute in monitoring the scientific literature on alcohol and health and providing commentaries; donations were not for funding specific research. Donors had no input into which articles were reviewed by the Institute, the discussions among scientists of the articles, or the conclusions expressed in the commentaries; donors did not know the content of commentaries until they were published for the public. According to records, unrestricted donations from the following three organizations were received between 2007 and 2013: the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, Canandaigua, NY; Diageo, Inc., New York City; and Brown-Forman Corporation, Louisville, KY. No funds have been received since then, and the Institute ceased operation in 2013. In 2010, he became a founder and chair of ISFAR. Over the past 40 years, invited presentations have been made at more than 100 local, regional, national, or international scientific meetings, for which travel expenses were paid as follows:

WineHealth, 2013, International Wine & Health Conference, Sydney, Australia, July 18–20, 2013, for which the official sponsor was the government agency International Organisation of Vine and Wine;

the 37th Annual Conference of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA), Bethesda, MD, November 7–9, 2013;

the 10th International Congress on Coronary Artery Disease, Florence, Italy, October 12–16, 2013, sponsored by the International Congress on Coronary Artery Disease;

Science Committee Meeting of DISCUS, Washington, DC, May 21, 2013;

Macrowine2012, Bordeaux, France, on June 16–20, 2012, sponsored by the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique of France;

the 6th International Wine and Heart Health Summit, in Newberg, OR, November 3–6, 2011;

Washington State Grape Society Meeting, Grandview, WA, November 19, 2010;

symposium, W. W., & di Como, L. Italy, October 28–31, 2010; and

WineHealth, 2010, International Wine & Health Conference, Italy, October 3–6, 2010.