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Eurocare (European Alcohol Policy Alliance) has issued today an open letter of support for the Thai government for its plans to introduce alcohol health warnings labels on packages of alcoholic beverages.
In January this year Thailand has notified the WTO (Committee on Technical Barrier to Trade) about plans to introduce rotating pictorial warnings on alcoholic beverages contained in different types of containers. The proposal includes:
* picture printed in 4 colours and 6 types of which one of them is required to be rotated at 1,000 package intervals.
* 6 types of health warning messages
* they should cover at least 30% of package
* prohibition of suggesting on labels that alcohol can improve better health
In the open letter Eurocare expressed its support for the initiative of placing health warning labels on alcoholic beverages and congratulated the Thai government for its courage and willingness to take this step to tackle alcohol related harm.
The significance of the economic costs of ill health has been acknowledged not only by public health community but also economic agencies such as the World Economic Forum in its publication “Global Risks 2010”. Chronic diseases were placed as one of the top most severe risks facing the world. They scored very high on likelihood and severity indicators . Alcohol is the 3rd main contributory factor globally to chronic diseases (it ranks 2nd in middle income countries and 1st in high income countries) . … (Source: Eurocare, 10/28/10)