Alcoholic drinks should carry label warnings to combat abuse

A group of MPs has recommended that all bottles of alcohol sold within the UK should carry a health warning.

The recommendation has been put forward by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Alcohol Misuse. This group is concerned about the increasing level of alcohol abuse within the UK and wants clear health warnings to be displayed on alcohol bottles in a similar way to the compulsory health warnings on tobacco packaging.

The group’s chair, Conservative MP Tracey Crouch, 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 ten years; and the cost of alcohol to the economy totals £21bn. Getting political parties to seriously commit to these ten measures will be a massive step in tackling the huge public health issue that alcohol is.”

Current alcohol labelling only requires the stating of the alcoholic content; however, the group wants labels to display not only this content but also the nutritional value and an evidence-based health warning. The group does not want such content to be displayed using graphics but in text, as the intention is not to shock but to inform.

The group’s vice-chairman, Labour peer Clive Brooke, stated that alcohol is the UK’s second-largest preventable killer after tobacco and that it is time politicians made a stand against the influential alcohol sector.