British Alcohol Industry to Label Drinks with Warnings

Britain has announced an agreement between the British Government and the alcohol industry, whereby alcoholic drinks will carry health warnings, according to a new report by Reuters News (today.reuters.com) . The drinks industry will include information about the number of alcoholic units each drink contains, along with the recommended levels of drinks considered to be "safe" for men and women.

This new measure is scheduled to be in effect by the end of next year. The warnings are intended to prevent dangerous binge drinking, by giving consumers a measurement to determine their alcohol consumption.

Binge drinking is considered to be consuming 10 or more units for men and 7 or more units for women. According to official figures, more than 7.1 million English people are hazardous or harmful drinkers, reports Reuters.

Public Health Minister Caroline Flint was quoted in Reuters, "This landmark, voluntary agreement will help people calculate, at a glance, how much they are drinking and whether they are staying with sensible drinking guidelines. We want to make it as simple as possible for people to keep an eye on how much they are drinking and help them take the responsibility for lessening the impact excess alcohol can have on their health".

The CDC, Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, defines binge drinking on their website (cdc.gov) "Binge drinking is defined as a pattern of alcohol consumption that brings the blood alcohol concentration level to 0.08% or above. This pattern of drinking usually corresponds to more than 4 drinks on a single occasion for men or more than 3 drinks on a single occasion for women, generally within about 2 hours."

According to the CDC, there are a number of detrimental health consequences related to alcohol consumption. Effects of alcohol consumption include: