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Tobacco style health warnings for alcohol

  2. dearmat23
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Drinks manufacturers in the UK will be given until the end of the year to put the required warnings and advice on bottles and cans. If the target is not met, the Government will move to put a mandatory scheme in place. This would require health and unit information on all drinks containers.

The consultation, which is launched today (July 22), would see the industry's self-regulation code on retailing become mandatory. It would also mean restrictions on the way alcohol is sold in pubs, bars and nightclubs, including banning large glasses or measures, restricting promotions and mandatory point of sale information. Shop checkouts will also not be allowed to display alcohol-related promotions.

Figures will show that six per cent of all NHS admissions are in some way caused by drink, and the rate of visits to hospital over alcohol-related problems is rising by 10 per cent every year. The figures indicate the true impact alcohol has on the NHS from accidents, violence and disease. They include for the first time estimates of the number of cancers caused by alcohol consumption as well as heart disease and strokes.

Alcohol is thought to cause about 17,000 cases of cancer a year and £2billion of NHS money is spent every year treating patients with alcohol-related diseases. Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, believes “lifestyle” illnesses will put an increasing strain on the NHS unless people behave more responsibly.
dearmat23

25 responses // Tobacco style health warnings for alcohol

  • I think this is a good move, but I question how much of an effect it will have on drinkers.
    mattbrawn
    2 responses to this
  • The marketing industry knew this was going to be the next step. Education and alcohol reform isn't going to happen over night, just as it didn't (hasn't) with tobacco. It's a lethal, toxic and dangerous drug and needs to be recognised as such. Our culture of mass consumption and zero personal responsibility needs to be addressed on so many levels and in nearly every area.
    dearmat23
  • Alcohol is not dangerous.

    People thinking it can solve their problems are. Just like pot smokers who smoke to solve problems are the problem not those who tend to just smoke in social situations.

    Nothing that you can inhale, drink, or have sex with will solve your problems.

    Unfortunately this world is full of idiots that think otherwise.
    J_Jammer
  • JJ, this is about alcohol abuse, and cultural perceptions, not alcohol itself. Like tobacco, which was a once sacred sacrament, used and treated with respect, it has been ruthlessly marketed and sold with no care for the personal and social consequences. Calling people idiots doesn't change the fact that both substances, when used irresponsibly, are highly addictive and severely harmful.

    Within our so-called civilized countries companies are allowed to manufacture, advertise and distribute products that, if used according to the recommended instructions cause pain and death. Tobacco, Alcohol, Pharmaceuticals, Chemical Sprays, Fast Foods, Cars.

    I hope that you never have to cope with personal addiction, or that of a loved one and that if you do you meet more empathetic and caring individuals than you, yourself currently are.

    I agree that personal problems cannot be tackled with any form of material consumption, but that is not the story that is sold and told 24/7, count yourself lucky that you don't buy it.
    dearmat23
    5 responses to this
  • this is good.
    Ben_Traffic_UK
  • Regulation on personal behavior is always a loss of personal freedom. The government feels a need to regulate personal freedom based on nuisance to the system. They decide 6% NHS admissions is a nuisance and regulate personal freedom to curb the problem. The governments position should never be to regulate based on how convenient our behavior is for the government, but to make the government and it's mechanism more convenient for its people. Here's an example- there are too many people in the population, so the government of China decides to regulate child birth and the birth of females for its citizens. Another would be in America where blacks were considered a nuisance to whites and were segregated from the population and written into law as a sub-human group of people through regulation. Regulation on personal freedom is never good, and it's time people recognized that fact. It may seem benign and for the public good over all, but it is simply an erosion of your freedom. Now you won't be able to purchase a long glass at the pub? What good does that serve? Public awareness and limitations imposed by law are two different weapons. Perhaps they should ban homosexual sex because it causes health problems, or maybe oral sex because it could potentiate the transmission of disease. Perhaps the government should ban Islam because it feels threatened by it. Traffic congestion is bad? How about making driving illegal. See where this goes?
    Psychedelic
    2 responses to this
  • In fact you nailed the heart of this story Psychedelic, 'public awareness and limitations imposed by law are two different weapons.' Indeed, see where this goes.
    dearmat23
  • The government is yet again taking the easy (and cheap) way out of the UK's binge and teenage drinking problems.

    If you wanna get hammered, you will no matter what some stupid bottle on the label says, and anyways; when you goto any venue you often don't even get the bottle.
    ChaosSeven
  • Little labels on the side won't stop people from drinking. Like smoking, people know the consequences and do it anyway.
    handshakeheartbreak
  • I think education and warnings is never a bad thing. Good Post dearmat23.
    stopnoise
    1 response to this
  • but, they aren't telling us how much alcohol these affected people have consumed. it's one thing to be a social drinker and quite another to be an alcoholic...
    benzzy
    1 response to this
  • its laughable that governments (and therefore societies) make huge amounts of money from the things that are really, really bad for us, and then stick little labels on to make us feel worried and guilty while we're spending money/making money/killing ourselves. perhaps they should go for the really graphic warnings like on thair cigarettes? dead babies floating like ghosts, mid-slice lung surgery, and horrific dirty teeth (ironically, they were the most affecting). i ripped them off the packets when i smoked there, but they really did stop me bringing any duty free back - i couldn't bear to look at them again! so maybe these warnings will work... but would you actually put a bottle of wine down and reach for the ribena if you read something like this in the supermarket?
    LindseyIndigo
  • Good! Although if you didn't know this already......I'd say you're a drunken moron.
    CTZNWES
  • Yes...lets just put labels on everything that can be potentially bad for us. Hold our hands as we cross the big scary street, because we do not yet have the common sense to tell us that getting hit by a bus might be harmful to our health.

    Can anyone have a good time anymore?
    AlinaJette

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