Alcohol Health Warning Labels

The alcohol industry produces a drug. It’s a nice drug and it’s legal. And some of us are quite fond of it. But despite the social acceptability of this drug named alcohol, it is responsible for a large share of fatalities and disability globally.

In 2012, 5.9%, of all deaths in the world were attributable to alcohol consumption. Even in the relatively moderate USA, the effect of alcohol can be blamed on one in three road traffic accidents, around 50% of violence assaults and over half a million homicides per year.

While most people understand the risks associated with alcohol and the liver, when it comes to other health risks, public awareness is worrying low. Alcohol is categorized as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), yet in a 2016 study only 12.9% of respondents identified cancer as a potential health outcome of alcohol consumption (Buykx et al 2016 BMC Public Health).

With Trump’s efforts to withhold healthcare from the masses, we’re not currently in the business of looking to the US for best practice, but for 20 years, health warnings have been mandatory there. And it’s not only hats off to the US; Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, China, Israel and Sweden, to name a few, have also adopted similar health warnings!

Streets ahead of everyone else is South Africa and Kenya who have not only introduced a range of health warnings – but in Kenya’s case, they understand the importance of being harm specific and rotating messages to avoid viewer fatigue. Our personal favourite, is Turkey, whose health warnings read “Alcohol is not your friend.”

Across Europe, which claims the highest per capita of alcohol consumption in the world, there is no EU legislation to warn about health risks on alcohol labels, although some individual countries have made some positive steps to enforce warnings. In other western countries, including the UK and Australia, a voluntary code for producers seems to dominate the conversation. Earlier this year, however, researchers for the Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA) identified just one out of 315 labels adhered to the current guidelines. ‘No labels contained health warnings of specific illnesses or diseases, advised customers to spread their drinking across the week, nor recommended drink-free days – all of which, like the weekly limit, are contained in the chief medical officer’s guidelines’.

Furthermore, adoption of a voluntary code and self-regulation has allowed messages like ‘enjoy responsibly’, ‘drink responsibly’ and ‘Know Your Limits’ to be widely adopted. These are an example of strategic ambiguity that Smith et al neatly explain as seemingly ‘pro health’ messages which can serve to subtly advance both industry sales and public relations interests.

The alcohol industry is powerful. The truth on labels in big bold letters may not be good for business but it might good your health

Consumers of alcohol like any other drug need to be given the facts about the risks they expose themselves to every time they have a drink. They need to know that risk is dependent on how much they drink and that drinking less reduces that risk. They need specific positive messages that allow them to feel ok about making decisions that may improve their health and well-being.