Need for alcohol health warning labels: Lancet

NEW DELHI: Less than one-third of all the countries globally have regulations mandating Alcohol Health Warning Labels on alcohol containers, said a latest Lancet study, which recommended the need for mentioning well-established adverse health consequences due to alcohol consumption like fatal cancers, liver damage and other noncommunicable disease and road traffic accidents on them. According to Dr Yatan Pal Singh Balhara, the co-author of the study, “In India, while there are health warning labels on alcohol containers and health warning labels on alcohol advertising, there are no provisions to have health warning labels on pregnancy, health warning labels on under-age drinking, and health warning labels on drink-driving.” Dr Balhara, who is a Professor of Psychiatry at the National Drug Dependence Treatment Center and Department of Psychiatry at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, said all these are important themes to consider as alcohol is a significant contributor to road traffic accidents. “However, less than one-third of all the countries surveyed globally have regulations mandating Alcohol Health Warning Labels on alcohol containers. The study found that some of the well-established adverse health consequences associated with alcohol use, such as harmful health consequences of alcohol consumption related to fatal cancers, liver damage and other noncommunicable diseases and road traffic accidents, have not yet been included in the AHWLs.