Should wines, beers and spirits carry cigarette-style health warnings?

Some ministers have proposed that wines, beers, and spirits should carry cigarette packet-style health warnings to tackle alcohol abuse.

15:53 11 August 2014

The All Parliamentary Party Group on Alcohol Misuse wants wines, beers, and spirits to carry cigarette-style health warning to reduce the potential harm of alcohol in the United Kingdom.  

 

The 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 wants tougher regulations on advertising, a mandatory minimum price per alcohol, 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 £21bn.

 

"Getting political parties to seriously commit to these measures will be a massive step in tackling the huge public health issue that alcohol is."