It seems a sensible move to use explicit warning labels on products. What I’m more sceptical about is the ‘No amount of alcohol is safe for you’ messaging ...
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ou’re going to want to sit down with a big glass of water for this one, because I’m afraid I have some bad news. Here we go: alcohol is not terribly good for you. Shocker, right? You’ve probably never heard anything like this before in your life. No doubt, you’ve been choking down a glass of pinot with dinner whenever you can stomach it because you thought it was good for your cholesterol. Instead, it is elevating your risk of cancer.
If public health experts have their way, the fact that alcohol is carcinogenic is going to be very hard for British drinkers to ignore. Dozens of medical and health organisations recently wrote to Keir Starmer urging the prime minister to force companies to include “bold and unambiguous” labels on booze bottles, warning that alcohol causes cancer.
Currently only about a quarter of countries require any sort of health warnings on alcohol and these are generally vague and in small print. However, there are growing calls for more aggressive messaging. In 2016, South Korea mandated a number of warning labels for alcohol, including one that specified links to liver cancer. (Manufacturers can choose which label to use, and don’t need to use the one linked to cancer.) In 2023, meanwhile, Ireland signed a law (which comes into effect next year) that made it the first country to mandate warning labels specifying a direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers.
