Wine bottle health warnings urged

AUGUST 11, 2014
AAP
LABELS on alcohol products should warn about the harmful effects of drinking, Britain’s All Parliamentary Party Group on Alcohol Misuse says.
HEALTH warnings are a prominent feature on tobacco products but consumer information provided on alcohol packaging only extends to volume strength.
The group has called on political parties to commit to 10 recommendations which they say will help to minimise alcohol-related harm in the UK – including the introduction of health warnings on alcohol products.
The recommendation document states: “Health warnings are a familiar and prominent feature on all tobacco products. Likewise, detailed nutritional labelling is ubiquitous on food products and soft drinks.
“Yet consumer information on alcohol products usually extends no further than the volume strength and unit content.
“In order to inform consumers about balanced risk, every alcohol label should include an evidence-based health warning as well as describing the product’s nutritional calorific and alcohol content.”
The group also called for the introduction of a mandatory minimum price per unit for alcohol, the strengthening the regulations surrounding alcohol marketing and a reduction of the drink drive limit.
Conservative MP Tracey Crouch, chairwoman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Alcohol Misuse, said: “The facts and figures of the scale of alcohol misuse in the UK speak for themselves: 1.2 million people a year are admitted to hospital due to alcohol; liver disease in those under 30 has more than doubled over the past 20 years; and the cost of alcohol to the economy totals 21 billion.
“Getting political parties to seriously commit to these 10 measures will be a massive step in tackling the huge public health issue that alcohol is.”