IF FINGER-WAGGING doesn't put you off drinking, maybe a photo of a diseased liver will, or of a bulging beer belly. Putting warnings on alcoholic drinks has been proposed by a group of British parliamentarians as part of a manifesto of 10 measures to reduce alcohol misuse in the UK.
"We're really not in the stages of knowing what the labels would look like yet," says Cara Barrett of Alcohol Concern, the charity that helped to launch the manifesto. "At the moment it's a call to display the nutritional content, including the calories and sugar, as well as the alcohol units, so people are aware of what they are consuming."
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Alcohol Misuse wants evidence-based health warnings on all alcohol labels, but whether they deter drinkers may depend on how grim they are. Research into tobacco warnings shows that the most gruesome images have a greater deterrent effect on smokers than written warnings.
The manifesto states that liver disease in those under 30 has more than doubled over the past 20 years, and puts the annual cost of alcohol to the UK economy due to accidents and ill health at £21 billion.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Grog shock"
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