Consumer Labelling and Alcoholic Drinks [antikvár]

PrefaceAlcohol is a psychoactive drug implicated in at least sixty diseases. Any other product as potentially dangerous as this would almost certainly be festooned with warning labels, assuming, that is, that it were allowed to be on open sale.Alcoholic beverages are treated differently. While some countries have now begun to insist on warning labels being attached to alcohol products, notably in relation to the dangers of drinking during pregnancy, in general policy remains hesitant, and the issue is still seen as controversial, despite the fact that, as this report explains, the large majority of the European population support the idea of warning labels.This report is an important contribution to the debate on warning labels. It considers the case for requiring them and what their introduction might be expected to achieve, based on a comprehensive review of the international experience not only of alcohol labelling but also the labelling of tobacco products. Clearly, there are lessons to be learnt from this experience, and while few would suggest that labels are any kind of panacea, this report suggests that the idea is worth pursuing as part of a comprehensive approach to reducing alcohol harm.Andrew McNeill, Institute of Alcohol Studies