I GOT SOME NEWS FOR YOU…
Unlike cigarettes, labeling requirements for alcoholic beverages are very diverse all over the world.
For instance, in the United States, they’ve been imposing requirements on alcoholic beverages since 1988. I wonder if this was done in the name of health for their citizens or to cover themselves for lawsuits, but at least they are doing it. In Kenya, they made health warnings on alcoholic beverages obligatory by law in 2012. Literally all over the world, from Nicaragua to Mexico & the Republic of Korea: they’re on it. I’m curious why we are so behind here in the EU…
But now, on to the good news: Ireland!!! Ireland is the first EU member state to put health warnings on alcohol products, including cancer warning labels specifically.
The warning text on the products will read:
- “Drinking alcohol causes liver disease”
- “There is a direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers”
- Plus, a graphic symbol will inform the public of the danger of alcohol consumption when pregnant
This announcement was made public after it passed the deadline for the European Commission to oppose it. All that’s left to do is for Ireland’s Minister for Health to sign the provisions into law. Once that’s done, the alcohol industry will have three years to implement the labeling on its packaging.
This is pretty huge! The labeling will empower people to make informed decisions about alcohol by raising awareness of its health risks. Just like it did with nicotine/cigarettes. And this is great for all the obvious reasons but also: It might help make it more normal to not drink! Because why would it be frowned upon to nót drink something harmful?!
ALCOHOL – FACTS
Here are some key facts about alcohol (source: World Health Organisation)
- The harmful use of alcohol is a causal factor in more than 200 disease and injury conditions
- Worldwide, 3 million deaths every year result from harmful use of alcohol. This represents 5.3% of all deaths
- Overall, 5.1% of the global burden of disease and injury is attributable to alcohol
- Beyond health consequences, the harmful use of alcohol brings significant social and economic losses to individuals and society at large
So clearly not as innocent as many people think, alcohol… Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance. It was classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer decades ago. On the 4th of January, the World Health Organisation even announced that NO level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health:
“We cannot talk about a so-called safe level of alcohol use. It doesn’t matter how much you drink – the risk to the drinker’s health starts from the first drop of any alcoholic beverage. The only thing that we can say for sure is that the more you drink, the more harmful it is. Or, in other words, the less you drink, the safer it is.”
Dr Carina Ferreira-Borges, acting Unit Lead for Noncommunicable Disease Management and Regional Advisor for Alcohol and Illicit Drugs in the WHO Regional Office for Europe
Dr Carina Ferreira-Borges also says:
“We need cancer-related health information messages on labels of alcoholic beverages, following the example of tobacco products; we need empowered and trained health professionals who would feel comfortable to inform their patients about alcohol and cancer risk; and we need overall wide awareness of this topic in countries and communities.”
The risk of developing cancer increases substantially the more alcohol is consumed. However, the latest available data indicate that half of all alcohol-attributable cancers in the WHO European Region are caused by ‘light’ and ‘moderate’ alcohol consumption. Which means less than 1.5 liters of wine / less than 3.5 liters of beer / less than 450 milliliters of spirits per week.
Shocking, no?!
Seeing how bad alcohol really is for us, it’s about bloody time we get proper warnings about the product, don’t you agree? Including cancer warning labels. Like we do with cigarettes. Their packaging is very clear…
NOT EVERYONE AGREES
The 4 main wine-making countries in Europe, Spain, France, Portugal & Italy, don’t agree with this view though. They reacted to Ireland’s news with great ´passion´:
Coldiretti, Italy’s most significant farmers’ association, described the “terrifying” warnings as a “direct attack” against the country.
And Luigi D’Eramo, an undersecretary at Italy’s agriculture, food sovereignty and forestry ministry, has said: “Wine is history, culture … an expression of our territories and is part of the Mediterranean diet. It is about quality and responsible consumption.”
Suuure, put the blame and responsibility on us, the consumers… Not on the highly addictive nature of the drink…
In any way: Big Alcohol is clearly getting scared, peeps! And rightly so, let’s gooo!!! 👊🏻
Ps: Both Norway and Canada are on their way to legislation of the labeling of their alcoholic beverages too… Make sure to check back here shortly for any updates x
