Warnings on wine bottles

2003-11-22 13:02

Cape Town - The first wine bottles with warning labels to help reduce South Africa's high rate of alcohol abuse were released this week, but an action group and an industry organsation say the move will have little benefit.

Winemaker Pierre-Jeanne Gerber, who has been working with the Western Cape province's health ministry to create legislation governing the production of the labels, said he embarked on the project to highlight the dangers of alcohol abuse and foetal alcohol syndrome.

"On these labels I state quite clearly alcohol abuse can destroy lives and should be used responsibly," he said.

A report released recently by South Africa's Medical Research Council (MRC) said that half of all murders and road accidents and more than 60% of hospital trauma cases were the result of drunkenness.

"I simply see myself as a frontrunner on something that will ultimately be done by all wine producers," Gerber said in comments quoted in the Cape Town based Saturday Argus newspaper.

According to the MRC, alcohol abuse costs South Africa at least R9 billion a year, with about 5.9 million men and 1.63 million women engaging in risky drinking - drinking five or more beers or glasses of wine at one sitting for men and more than three drinks for women.

"The idea of alcohol warning labels and its effects is not new," Gerber said.

"We want to ensure that alcohol is used responsibly. We don't want to destroy people's lives."

The Western Cape's health minister, Piet Meyer, said the warning labels were long overdue.

"If legislation can be formulated to warn of the hazards of smoking, I see no reason why the same should not apply to alcohol," he said.

But Chan Makan, the head of the Association for Responsible Alcohol Use, said most of the people abusing alcohol were poorly educated and often could not read.

"I do not believe that the printing of these labels is going to have much benefit," he said.

"The main risk factors for alcohol abuse are poor education, unemployment and poverty and most people who are abusing alcohol do not even drink out of conventional packaging."

Su Birch, the chief executive of Wines of South Africa, the industry's export body, said it would be more effective to get to the grass roots of the problem of alcohol abuse.

"We are not pro putting on warning labels," she said.

"It is well known that the responsible use of alcohol is good for a person's health.

"The government and the industry need to find out what they can do at grass roots level to prevent this alcohol abuse and to uplift people who are vulnerable to it."

- AFP