Warning labels for expecting mums

The Alcohol Policy Coalition (APC) has welcomed a landmark move by the Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation, to vote in favour of requiring all alcohol bottles and cans carrying government-developed pregnancy warning labels.

Sarah Jackson, spokesperson for the APC, said women have the right to know how alcohol can harm them and their unborn child.

“Drinking alcoholic beverages during pregnancy can cause life-long and irreversible health harms to the drinker and her baby, including miscarriage, still birth, low birth weights and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.

“But alcohol corporations have been keeping pregnant women in Australia in the dark about these dangers, by resisting the use of clear warning labels on all products to inform pregnant women.”

The alcohol industry has been given seven years to voluntarily introduce pregnancy warning labels, but two parliamentary inquiries identified that this voluntary approach has failed.

Pregnancy warning labels currently appear on less than half of alcohol products, and are small, unclear and hard to find.

“The APC supports clear and prominent pregnancy warning labels developed by government on all packaged alcoholic products. This is needed to provide clear information to pregnant women on the harms of drinking to their unborn babies, and as an essential part of a comprehensive strategy to prevent alcohol consumption by pregnant women,” Ms Jackson said.

“We congratulate the forum ministers who supported this crucial measure to inform pregnant women for prioritising efforts to prevent alcohol-fuelled damage to women’s and children’s health.

“We look forward to Food Standards Australia New Zealand moving quickly to design and implement effective pregnancy warning labels.”