Ireland will become the first country in the world to impose health labels on alcoholic drinks and it may prompt many European states to follow.
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00:00 Ireland is set to become the first country in the world to impose warning labels on alcoholic drinks
00:05 and explain how dangerous they are to your health if you drink them.
00:09 The law is due to be introduced in 2026 and there's now a push for the entire European Union to follow.
00:16 We believe that all consumers should have the facts about alcohol included in details of risks.
00:22 We would also like the European Commission to publish a revision of the EU legislation as soon as possible
00:29 and European doctors, CPME, supports the right of national governments to take initiatives such as the Irish case.
00:37 The packaging on alcoholic drinks will have to warn that alcohol can cause some cancers and liver disease
00:43 and it can be dangerous for pregnant women.
00:45 That's prompted concern among alcohol producers across the continent who fear their sales will be affected.
00:52 But at least one drinks industry body is not attacking the health message itself.
00:56 Instead it's talking about the complexities of internal market coherence
01:00 and even how the European region is defined by the World Health Organization.
01:05 We do not believe that the Irish legislation is a particularly useful or practical solution
01:14 in terms of internal market coherence to harmonize at European level.
01:18 What we need to differentiate very clearly is that usually the term Europe in such debates
01:23 refers to the WHO European regions, which stretches from Lisbon to Vladivostok,
01:29 includes Turkey and many of the Central Asian republics.
01:32 Almost 1% of EU GDP is spent on alcoholic drinks.
01:36 In 2021 EU householders spent 128 billion euros on them.
01:42 The World Health Organization welcomes Ireland's move.
01:45 So WHO collects data from all the countries and it's true that 1 million deaths is an aggregated number
01:53 that covers 53 countries in the European region.
01:57 So these three areas, pricing, availability, marketing, restriction,
02:03 have plenty of source of evidence that they do have an impact, they are cost effective
02:09 and they are very important with a huge impact in reducing the mortality
02:15 and also in reducing decreases in life expectancy, which are also linked to alcohol consumption.
02:22 [SWOOSH]