Clearly visible health warning labels on alcoholic beverages are essential to make consumers aware that drinking alcohol can lead to cancer, according to a new WHO/Europe report entitled ‘Alcohol health warning labels: a public health perspective for Europe’.
The WHO stresses the urgent need for compulsory, standardised labelling of alcoholic beverages.
“To ensure that the label will be attended to by consumers and provide evidence-based messages, a mandatory approach is recommended”, says the WHO.
This simple measure can help reduce alcohol-related harm, according to the WHO, which estimates that alcohol causes around 800,000 deaths a year in the WHO European Region, “the heaviest-drinking area in the world”.
Although cancer is the leading cause of alcohol-related deaths in the EU, the lack of public awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer remains alarming.
Link to the WHO report: https://aeur.eu/f/fic (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)