EC report calls for clear warnings on drink labels

by Nicola Clark, Marketing 14-Jun-06

Alcohol companies are being urged to place prominent health warnings on their labels, following a report from the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) in London.

The report, which was created for the European Commission and published
last week, also recommends a pan-European campaign to reduce drinking
and driving.

It is one of many reports commissioned ahead of the release of an EC

Communication on Alcohol and Health this summer.

Recommendations suggest that alcohol containers should carry warnings,
determined by health bodies, describing the harmful effects of
alcohol.

The report comes at a key time for the alcohol industry, which has faced
regular headlines focusing on the economic cost of binge drinking to the
UK.

In February, Diageo launched a responsible-drinking TV ad campaign to
encourage drinkers to reconsider their attitudes to alcohol by showing
the negative effects of binge drinking (Marketing, 15 February).

This is unlikely to be enough to prevent further regulation, and the
report states that educational interventions 'show little effectiveness
in reducing the harm done by alcohol and are not an alternative to
measures that regulate the alcohol market'.

At present, there is no comprehensive alcohol policy document or
strategy for the European Union; the EC is seeking a Europe-wide stance
on alcohol regulation because of the increase of cross-border
marketing.

The IAS research estimates that the tangible costs of alcohol to the EU
were EUR125bn in 2003, EUR59bn of which was attributable to 'lost
productivity through absenteeism, unemployment and lost working years
through premature death'.