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HEALTH WARNING: Up to 1.2 million people are admitted to hospital each year due to alcohol

HEALTH WARNINGS on alcoholic drinks should be introduced to tackle problem drinking, a parliamentary group has said.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Alcohol Misuse said labels should warn about the harmful effects of drinking.

According to the BBC, the group wants political parties to commit to 10 recommendations to minimise alcohol-related problems in the UK.

The recommendation document written by the group says: "Health warnings are a familiar and prominent feature on all tobacco products. Likewise, detailed nutritional labelling is ubiquitous on food products and soft drinks.

"Yet consumer information on alcohol products usually extends no further than the volume strength and unit content."

It continued: "In order to inform consumers about balanced risk, every alcohol label should include an evidence-based health warning as well as describing the product's nutritional, calorific and alcohol content."

Among their recommendations, the MPs are calling for a reduction of the drink drive limit, the strengthening of regulations surrounding alcohol marketing and the introduction of a mandatory minimum price per unit for alcohol.
Conservative MP Tracey Crouch, chairwoman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Alcohol Misuse, said: "The facts and figures of the scale of alcohol misuse in the UK speak for themselves - 1.2 million people a year are admitted to hospital due to alcohol; liver disease in those under 30 has more than doubled over the past 20 years and the cost of alcohol to the economy totals £21bn.

"Getting political parties to seriously commit to these 10 measures will be a massive step in tackling the huge public health issue that alcohol is."