PLX Academy · News · 19 April 2022
alcoholic beverages
The Norwegian Directorate of Health is recommending labeling alcoholic beverages with a health warning, especially regarding cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The recommendation comes after extensive investigation and alcohol labeling is set to be an important element of the government’s new alcohol strategy.
The Directorate emphasizes that warning labels can be important tools for increasing the populations knowledge about possible damage from alcohol use.
“The evidence about the links between alcohol use and cancer and cardiovascular diseases has been growing in recent years. It is now known that there is no safe limit and it increases the risk of disease”- says Linda Granlund, Division Director for public health and prevention at the Directorate.
According to World Health Organization, although alcohol negatively affects various health outcomes, awareness about the health risks of consuming alcohol remains relatively low. Current labeling practices across countries are not standardized as they are with medicine, food products and soft drinks.
The inconsistencies in displaying information and other factors such as the scale of interventions and assessment methods have resulted in divergent practices and outcomes, leaving consumers without critical information to make decisions. Experimental studies indicate that warning labels can impact self-reported intention to reduce consumption– it is stated in a recent WHO publication.