Alcohol Warning Labels

Dear Minister,

You are in receipt of a copy of my letter also dated July 18 addressed to Prime Minister Harper on the subject of alcohol warning labels. As stated in that letter, the Canada Safety Council believes that alcohol warning labels will deliver no benefit to Canadian society and, more importantly, will divert resources and attention away from strategies, proven measures and personal interventions that actually can make a difference.

Alcohol warning labels have been in effect since 1988 in the U.S. A World Health Organization (WHO) report Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity states that while these warning labels have had an effect on awareness and knowledge, no direct impacts of warning labels on consumption or alcohol-related problems have been reported. WHO further determined that among youth, the warnings did not increase perceptions of alcohol risk, and may even have made the products more attractive to both drinkers and non-drinkers.

Canada has a fully developed national Strategy To Reduce Impaired Driving (STRID). This strategy has been in place for a number of years and has evolved as progress has been made. It involves all concerned provincial, territorial and federal government officials and stakeholders such as the Canada Safety Council. With leadership from STRID, Canada saw a 27 percent drop in road fatalities involving a drinking driver between 1995 and 2000. (During the same period, comparable US fatalities did not go down at all.) A 40 percent decrease in the percentage of road users fatally or seriously injured in crashes involving drinking drivers is the 2010 target.

On an average Saturday night, fewer than one percent of drivers on the road have a blood alcohol concentration of over 150 mg%, which is almost twice the legal limit. This tiny percentage of drivers causes up to 65 percent of all serious nighttime and weekend crashes. Most of these drivers are known to be hardcore drinking drivers, who frequently drive after drinking to excess; many are alcohol-dependent. STRID is currently focusing on this small high-risk group, who have proven resistant to countermeasures aimed at awareness and education. Warning labels will not address this safety problem.

We refer you to an article, Stopping, fetal alcohol syndrome: Women who drink need treatment, authored by Janet Golden, which appeared in the March 20, 2005 edition of the Seattle Post Intelligencer. In the article, Ms. Golden, in reviewing the US situation, states that the labels, warnings and cautionary publicity proved effective in reaching millions of women who subsequently chose to abstain from drinking during pregnancy. Others, especially those with severe drinking problems, often failed to head the warnings. She states that rates of FAS did not decline. In conclusion, she argues that alcohol-abusing women are not getting the help they need. She says these women don’t need warnings, they need treatment.

This country still needs a National Strategy to address the tragic consequences of FAS/FAE, which must include counseling and treatment targeted at high-risk groups. Until such a Strategy is in place with ample resources, financial and otherwise, efforts to eradicate this critical public health problem will fail.

The Canada Safety Council is concerned that the groups most susceptible to alcohol-related harms will not be affected by warning labels. Legislating such a requirement in a strategic vacuum is counterproductive and poor public policy. With regard to FAS/FAE, a national strategy similar to STRID is urgently needed. The proposed warning label legislation is a band-aid approach that will not work.

Sincerely,

Emile-J. Therien
President
Canada Safety Council

CC: The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P., Prime Minister of Canada
Honourable Laurence Cannon, P.C., M.P., Minister of Transport
Provincial/Territorial Premiers