News
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- Scotlands new drug and alcohol strategy launched
- AFS welcome new alcohol strategy
- Recent reporting on alcohol sales data
- Cross-Party Group Improving Scotland's health: 2021 and beyond October 2018
- Diageo is failing to provide latest guidelines on their products
- Drinks companies keeping consumers in dark about risky drinking
- Reducing alcohol consumption can address health inequalities
- Alcohol-specific deaths remain at very high levels
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- Global first alcohol policy set to save hundreds of Scots' lives
- AFS welcomes minimum unit pricing for alcohol
- Walker's crisp ad exposes children to alcohol marketing
- Truer picture of alcohol harm revealed
- Focus on link between alcohol and obesity
- Alcohol causes 3,700 deaths in Scotland every year
- Last Christmas for heavily discounted alcohol
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- Minimum pricing blog
- Minimum pricing gets green light
- Reflections on GAPC 2017
- Alcohol brands and young people
- Time for honest conversations about alcohol
- Q&A on alcohol marketing
- UK children anxious about parents' drinking
- Quarter of Scots drink above guidelines
- Alcohol producers failing to inform public
- Concern over alcohol-related deaths
- We need to make it easier for people to drink less
- Worrying rise in alcohol-related deaths
- Minimum pricing will save lives
- Pocket money prices for alcohol continue
- Scotland's alcohol problem laid bare
- Cheap alcohol is costing Scotland dear
- One drink a day can increase breast cancer risk
- Poverty linked to increased harm from alcohol
- What next for reducing alcohol harm in Scotland?
- Scotland must do more to turn tide of alcohol harm
- Concern as funding for alcohol services cut
- Budget: No change in alcohol duty
- Scottish Government urged to curb alcohol marketing
- Consumers have the right to know health risks
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- Alcohol-free childhood is healthiest option
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- Scottish Government receives European alcohol award
- SWA will appeal to UK Supreme Court
- Half of alcohol being sold under 50p per unit
- SWA urged to respect minimum pricing decision
- Alcohol and mental health are closely linked
- Minimum pricing can be implemented in Scotland
- Alcohol sold at pocket money prices
- Scotland has so much to gain from reducing how much we drink
- AFS welcomes revised alcohol consumption guidelines
- Emergency services face shocking levels of alcohol abuse
- Every child has the right to grow up safe from alcohol harm
- Public health must prevail over big business
- New toolkit to help children affected by family alcohol problems
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- Sales increase underlines need for minimum pricing
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- Minimum pricing decision delayed until summer
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- New alcohol guidelines published
- Minimum pricing - European court ruling
- Alcohol fuels ambulance assaults
- 82% of Scots agree drink driving is unacceptable
- Scotland's alcohol strategy - what next?
- Scotland leads way in evidence-based alcohol policy
- New report reveals impact of alcohol on emergency services
- Alcohol: a global concern
AFS calls for compulsory health warnings on alcoholic drinks
Alcohol Focus Scotland is calling for information on health risks to be required on all alcoholic drinks to help consumers make informed choices about their drinking.
The UK Chief Medical Officers have been consulting on how to communicate their new alcohol guidelines which recognise there is no safe level of alcohol consumption and state that men and women should not regularly drink more than 14 units per week.
In response to this consultation, Alcohol Focus Scotland is calling for more to be done to help people understand units, the recommended weekly limits and the health risks associated with alcohol. These health risks include cancer, cardiovascular disease, liver damage and mental health problems.
Mandatory labelling is essential to help consumers to make practical use of the guidelines. Every product should have to describe the product's ingredients, calorie and alcohol content. This information should also appear on drinks lists and menus in bars and restaurants.
Current "drink responsibly" messages should be replaced with compulsory factual health warnings and experience from tobacco suggests these must be varied over time so they continue to have impact.
In addition, all alcohol products should state that alcohol should be avoided completely when pregnant.
There is strong public support for improved labelling, with 87% of Scots backing health information and 76% supporting nutrition and calorie information on labels.
Alison Douglas, Chief Executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland said:
"Alcohol Focus Scotland welcomes the Chief Medical Officers' guidance which is based on a comprehensive review of the evidence on the health risks of drinking alcohol. The challenge now is to make it easier for people to make practical use of this guidance. As consumers we need the right information at the right time to enable us to make informed choices about whether, what and how much to drink.
"We all have the right to know what we are putting into our bodies. Mandatory labelling, including health warnings, would enable each of us to understand and manage the risks associated with alcohol consumption. Alcohol is both addictive and carcinogenic and should not be seen as an ordinary, everyday product.
"It is totally absurd that legislation requires more consumer information to be printed on a pint of milk than on a bottle of vodka."