Labelling system needed to advise women to minimise alcohol consumption during pregnancy

Posted by Bronwen Maher on September 27, 2010 at 04:16 PM

A labelling system advising women to minimise alcohol consumption during pregnancy should be obligatory, Nessa Childers MEP has said today.
 
The Irish government will have a chance to make this European law if it proposes such a move at the EU Council of Health Minister’s meeting in December. The meeting will discuss draft EU legislation on food labelling.
 
She said: “Labelling is long overdue but the government has repeatedly kicked the matter to touch. The Minister for Health should not just revisit the matter but propose to the other EU Member States at the Council of Health Ministers meeting in December that the labelling of alcohol should be introduced under the EU’s proposed new food labelling system in order to inform women of the risks involved with alcohol consumption during pregnancy.”
 
“A Coombe Women’s Hospital Study carried out in recent years makes stark reading. The research showed that 60% of Irish women continue to drink alcohol during pregnancy despite the well established evidence linking unsafe and excessive levels of alcohol consumption to serious health disorders in infants. ”  
 
“It is even more startling in light of the overwhelming evidence that no action whatsoever has been taken by government to raise awareness of these dangers and to empower women with the information they need to make informed choices.
 
“Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders are highly preventable and we need to get serious about changing attitudes and behaviour towards the excessive consumption of alcohol.

“Awareness of such disorders is low compared with France, the US and Scandinavia where labelling forms a core part of public health strategy. It is incumbent on the government to deal with this matter once and for all and I am asking that they do this in an EU wide context with the Council of Ministers in December.”
 
“If women who are pregnant do choose to consume alcohol during pregnancy, they should not drink more than one to two units of alcohol once or twice a week as per the advice from the Department of Health. Labels on packaged alcohol would give consumers the information to make a safe and informed choice in this respect.”

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