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A PROFESSIONAL beer taster has sued a brewery he worked at for 16 years claiming his job turned him into an alcoholic.
The taster said he was “forced” to down up to four litres of beer every day but was never warned of the heath risks.
He started at the Ambev brewery in São Paulo, Brazil aged 26 and claims he necked almost 25,000 pints before his dismissal in 1991.
Taking matters to court, he said he was required to drink even more before public holidays and special events to meet sales requirements.
The court heard his alcoholism was diagnosed eight years later.
He later retired on medical grounds aged 65.
But judges at the Second Panel of the Superior Labor Court rejected his plea for moral and material damages.
Ambev’s lawyers argued it was “humanly impossible” for the plaintiff to have consumed that much beer and still work – insisting tastings only require employees to take a “small sip” of the drink.
They added that, as a master brewer, he would have been aware of the effects of excessive alcohol consumption and remarked he continued to work as a brewer even after being dismissed from the company.
The hearing was the plaintiff’s second appeal after his case was thrown out by two lower courts.
Judges ruled in favour of the brewery following insubstantial claims linking his alcoholism with the firm.
The ruling comes as researchers have revealed heavy drinking more than doubles the risk of brain damage.
Boozers who down eight or more alcoholic drinks every week were found to have an increased risk of brain lesions associated with memory and thinking problems in a new study.
The researchers explained it causes hyaline arteriolosclerosis, which is when small blood vessels narrow and become thick and stiff – making it harder for blood to flow, damaging the brain over time.
The condition appears as lesions, areas of damaged tissue in the brain.
Heavy drinkers also died an average of 13 years earlier than those who never drank, according to the study published online by the journal Neurology.
NHS guidelines on drinking alcohol
According to the NHS, regularly drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week risks damaging your health.
To keep health risks from alcohol to a low level if you drink most weeks:
- men and women are advised not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis
- spread your drinking over 3 or more days if you regularly drink as much as 14 units a week
- if you want to cut down, try to have several drink-free days each week
If you’re pregnant or think you could become pregnant, the safest approach is not to drink alcohol at all to keep risks to your baby to a minimum.
You read more on the NHS website.
The Brazilian research team say their findings don’t prove that heavy drinking causes brain injury, but they do show an association.
Study author Dr Alberto Fernando Oliveira Justo, of University of Sao Paulo Medical School, said: “Heavy alcohol consumption is a major global health concern linked to increased health problems and death.
“We looked at how alcohol affects the brain as people get older.
“Our research shows that heavy alcohol consumption is damaging to the brain, which can lead to memory and thinking problems.”
The study included 1,781 people who had an average age of 75 when they died. All had brain autopsies.
Four out of 10 (40 per cent) of those who never drank had vascular brain lesions.
Of the moderate drinkers, 45 per cent had vascular brain lesions while 44 per cent of the heavy drinkers had vascular brain lesions.
Of the former heavy drinkers, 50 per cent had vascular brain lesions.
