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Simplepowa
In Pursuit of Knowledge


Registered: 03/06/09
Posts: 4,310
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Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo
#19246662 - 12/08/13 07:03 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquor containers
Tom Blackwell | 08/12/13 | Last Updated: 08/12/13 7:08 PM ET More from Tom Blackwell | @tomblackwellNP
Alcohol health warning labels from a presentation from EuroCare, the European Alcohol Policy Alliance. European Alcohol Policy AllianceAlcohol health warning labels from a presentation from EuroCare, the European Alcohol Policy Alliance.
For millions of Canadians, alcohol in its various forms is one of life’s great pleasures, its appeal often enhanced by artful packaging.
It is also, according to the World Health Organization, the second biggest source of death and disease, causing accidents, violence, chronic illness, birth defects and terminal cancers.
Those alcohol labels tend to dwell on the enjoyment, while ignoring the pain, but public-health advocates in Canada and elsewhere are pushing to change that, calling for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquor containers — or even just bottles in plain-brown wrappers.
A Nova Scotia researcher has added fuel to the movement with a strongly worded commentary just published in a medical journal, but he is not alone.
A recent editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal called for tobacco-like cautions on products to counter the industry’s marketing toward young people. The Canadian Public Health Association, which represents the country’s public-health doctors, has recommended at least considering the idea.
Thailand caused an international stir with its planned graphic warnings, and Australia is debating a move in the same direction. About 20 other countries, from Japan to the U.K., U.S. and France, have less-dramatic alerts on bottles. Canada has none.
“I’m not criticizing drinking behavior in general,” said Mohammed Al-hamdani, a doctoral student in organizational psychology at Halifax’s Saint Mary’s University and author of the new commentary. “What I’m trying to focus on is raising awareness of heavy drinking patterns and high-risk drinking.”
Alcohol is “deeply entrenched” within society, he noted. “You have to start with something more gentle. A warning is not invasive. It is not telling people where they can drink or when they can drink or what type of drink they can drink.”
Alcohol manufacturers, however, are opposing what they see as a temperance-style imposition on the many responsible drinkers, one they say is unlikely to have any benefit, and might even undermine health.
“I completely reject the comparison between beer and tobacco,” said Luke Harford, president of Beer Canada, the brewers’ trade group. “There are benefits to moderate consumption of beer, full stop. There are no benefits to moderate consumption of tobacco.”
Mr. Harford added that the “vast majority” of Canadians drink in a responsible manner. “There are those who don’t … and those who don’t regularly are not going to pay any attention to whatever label you put on the bottle, whether it’s grotesque or not.”
Studies have, in fact, questioned the value of small-print text messages like those required in the United States and elsewhere.
A 2006 report by Tim Stockwell of the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C., a leading authority in the field, concluded the American labels have “non-existent or minimal” effect on drinking behavior.
Responding to a Liberal MP’s 2005 private member’s bill, Spirits Canada went further, arguing drunk-driving crashes are on the decline, only a small minority of Canadians drink while behind the wheel or pregnant, and over half of pregnancies are unplanned, anyway, so cautionary labels would come too late for those women.
A federal-provincial working group failed to include warnings in its 2007 National Alcohol Strategy.
Mr. Al-hamdani admitted current labels seem largely ineffective. But that’s the point, he said: those warnings have generally lacked potency, failing to specify the exact health effects of excessive drinking, and indirectly encouraging consumption with phrases like one adopted in Argentina — “drink alcohol in moderation.”
He recommends in the Journal of Public Health Policy that warnings be more direct, such as “excessive drinking causes liver cancer.” Labels also need to be larger and more prominently placed on bottles, and accompanied by images of diseased organs and other arresting pictures, argued Mr. Al-hamdani’s paper.
The United Kingdom’s main association of public-health professionals, the Faculty of Public Health, called for similar “no-nonsense” labels last year, while insisting “this is not the nanny state.”
Mr. Al-hamdani stresses that no measures should be taken without further research. To that end, he has received funding to conduct a study of drinkers’ reactions to dramatic labels.
Certainly, research has repeatedly indicated that cigarette-package warnings are effective at discouraging smoking, noted Norman Giesbrecht, a senior scientist at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and prominent expert on alcohol policy.
“I think it’s worth exploring,” he said of putting such labels on alcohol.
Australia’s state governments came to a similar conclusion two years ago, saying governments would impose mandatory warnings if the industry did not come up with their own first.
The wine industry responded, but public-health groups complain the resulting cautions — such as “kids and alcohol don’t mix” — are too mild and unobtrusive. They favour cigarette-style alerts as part of a broader strategy against problem drinking.
Governments, meanwhile, have been backsliding on taking stronger action, terrified of being accused of nanny-statism or acting like “wowsers” — down-under slang for a fun-killing prude, lamented Michael Thorn, CEO of Australia’s Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education.
“People find [warning labels] very confronting, there is no question about that,” he said from the foundation’s offices in Canberra. “It does challenge our social norms about where alcohol fits in, it’s part in how we live our lives.”
National Post
tblackwell@nationalpost.com
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/12/08/public-health-advocates-pushing-for-graphic-cigarette-style-health-warnings-on-wine-beer-and-liquor-containers/
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Carl Sagan - "Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people." --- Robert Pirsig - "When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion." --- Brian Cox - "[One] problem with today’s world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it. The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense."
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DebuteMachine

Registered: 09/29/06
Posts: 6,457
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: Simplepowa] 1
#19246673 - 12/08/13 07:05 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Man I don't really care, do what you want. IMO it's not really going to make a difference other than successfully trying to make the bottle art ugly!
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Can-i-bus
Melting


Registered: 01/22/13
Posts: 1,161
Loc: WA
Last seen: 2 months, 27 days
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: DebuteMachine]
#19246699 - 12/08/13 07:11 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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The people that drink enough to cause damage to their bodies really don't give two fucks about their health. These labels wont change that.
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trampis
mad hatter


Registered: 01/01/06
Posts: 3,545
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: Can-i-bus] 2
#19246790 - 12/08/13 07:34 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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So, when is big brother going to step in and force fast food companies to put pictures of fat people on their to go bags?
Imagine having to look at this wrapped around your double cheese burger...
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Camwritesgonzo
The Unflushable Stool



Registered: 06/09/12
Posts: 2,333
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: trampis]
#19246834 - 12/08/13 07:42 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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-------------------- "I've always maintained that reality is for those who can't face drugs."-Tom Waits "I feel the same way about disco as I feel about herpes."-Hunter S. Thompson A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous, got me?
 
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tripp23
Kratom Freak



Registered: 05/21/08
Posts: 4,030
Loc: Florida, US
Last seen: 1 year, 3 months
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: Camwritesgonzo]
#19246965 - 12/08/13 08:10 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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its cool. im just gonna post all over the makers site of other products such as ice cream, milk, pizza, chips, etc. of stupid obese fat people with gastric-bypass surgery on their sites. That even goes for water and gum as well. Lets post pics of all the pineal glands they corroded with all the flouride and spam em all over food products and the internet.
Lets add air onto the list too. might as well. im gonna spam the oxygen we breath with useless pictures of peoples lungs of all the damage from all the government chemicals and smog and shit we all sucked in over all these years. sounds dandy to me
the us government is pathetic.
-------------------- Experience my nightmarish first time of smoking Ganja!

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Repertoire89
Cat



Registered: 11/15/12
Posts: 21,773
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: Simplepowa]
#19247081 - 12/08/13 08:33 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Should post pictures of people being murdered, tortured, robbed and raped over various churches.
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trampis
mad hatter


Registered: 01/01/06
Posts: 3,545
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: Repertoire89] 1
#19247128 - 12/08/13 08:43 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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And instead of having some commercial that makes joining the military seem like an epic adventure they should show images of amputees and young adults with half their face blown off.
The few, the proud, the paraplegic.
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Atrium
Cunt Tickler

Registered: 08/18/13
Posts: 1,284
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: trampis]
#19247328 - 12/08/13 09:22 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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"SURGEON'S GENERAL WARNING:This product known to the state of California to make you a dumbass, fuck some slut without a condom and owe her all of your income, contract weird bumps and puss all over your dick, and then you deal with the hangover. Oh, it also will make your IQ drop like a ton of brick."
-------------------- The only thing about Chemistry I like is all the psychedelics that come from it. The only reason I study Psychology is to have a legitimate excuse to enjoy Chemistry.
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CaptainAhab


Registered: 12/25/09
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: trampis]
#19247667 - 12/08/13 10:25 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
trampis said: So, when is big brother going to step in and force fast food companies to put pictures of fat people on their to go bags?
Imagine having to look at this wrapped around your double cheese burger...

Nice post.
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Konyap

Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 33,945
Loc: Planet Piss
Last seen: 4 years, 3 months
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: CaptainAhab]
#19249462 - 12/09/13 10:38 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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They should just outlaw certain percents
People can go to the brewery if they want to get hammered
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Repertoire89
Cat



Registered: 11/15/12
Posts: 21,773
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: Konyap]
#19250536 - 12/09/13 02:58 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Illyabo said: They should just outlaw certain percents
Take that shit to China, prohibitions going down
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Konyap

Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 33,945
Loc: Planet Piss
Last seen: 4 years, 3 months
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: Repertoire89]
#19250568 - 12/09/13 03:05 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Repertoire89 said:
Quote:
Illyabo said: They should just outlaw certain percents
Take that shit to China, prohibitions going down
this is why we can't have nice things
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Repertoire89
Cat



Registered: 11/15/12
Posts: 21,773
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: Konyap]
#19250602 - 12/09/13 03:11 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Illyabo said:
Quote:
Repertoire89 said:
Quote:
Illyabo said: They should just outlaw certain percents
Take that shit to China, prohibitions going down
this is why we can't have nice things
Because people like you want to put limitations on everyone else.
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DebuteMachine

Registered: 09/29/06
Posts: 6,457
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: Repertoire89]
#19250898 - 12/09/13 04:01 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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This thread is full of sarcasm but the sarcasm rings so true.
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Konyap

Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 33,945
Loc: Planet Piss
Last seen: 4 years, 3 months
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: Repertoire89]
#19251101 - 12/09/13 04:37 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Repertoire89
Cat



Registered: 11/15/12
Posts: 21,773
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: Konyap]
#19251109 - 12/09/13 04:38 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Illyabo said:


You got nothin son
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DebuteMachine

Registered: 09/29/06
Posts: 6,457
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Re: Public-health advocates pushing for graphic, cigarette-style health warnings on wine, beer and liquo [Re: Repertoire89]
#19251726 - 12/09/13 06:29 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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I had to post again to say you characters gave me a real laugh, im still laughing.
i think that fast food idea is fucking gold believe it or not, and i think it would work too.
to give some background, i work in the restaurant industry. i hate fast food for what it is, but i love it for what it could become. fast healthier (significantly healthier mind you) food would be a god send.
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