York | Archive | 2007 | May | 29

Will warning be heeded?

From the archive, first published Tuesday 29th May 2007.

A "total waste of time and money." That is the verdict of pub landlords in York on the Government's plans to put health warnings on bottles of booze.

They have a point. The increases in binge-drinking and alcohol-related disease and death in the UK are truly alarming.

In 2005, more than 3,800 men died from alcohol-related disease - more than double the rate for 1993. More than 1,700 women also died - nearly 70 per cent up on the figure 12 years before.

As a nation we're in danger of drinking ourselves to death.

But asking the drinks industry to sign up to a voluntary agreement to put better labelling on bottles is not the answer.

Yes, it can be difficult to tell how many units of alcohol are in a large glass of wine. Labels on bottles which tell you won't do any harm. But they won't do much good, either.

For a start, the warnings will be on bottles - not on the glasses in which most punters consume their drink when they reach the pub. And even if they were on glasses as well, how many drinkers would take much notice once they'd had a few?

The move is an obvious attempt to copy for the drinks industry the warning labels that appear on cigarette packets.

But it is debatable whether even the much stronger "smoking kills" labels on tobacco products have really had much effect in changing smokers' habits.

What is really needed is a concerted effort to change our attitudes towards alcohol - and so our drinking culture.

Education, education, education is the only way if the Government is really serious about tackling our boozy habits.