Heeding the Surgeon General's warning would mark a pivotal shift in our collective relationship with alcohol, pushing back against corporate interests in the alcohol industry.

Alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, following tobacco and obesity. While 90 percent of Americans know tobacco causes cancer, fewer than half realize alcohol does as well. Like tobacco warnings, alcohol warning labels would help consumers make more informed health choices.

  • De_Narm@lemmy.world
    0·
    3 days ago

    While I’m in favor of adding a label, I don’t think it would change much of anything. If you’re really health conscious, you probably don’t drink already and most other people would presumably say stuff like “everything causes cancer these days” or “my grandfather drinks daily and look how healthy he is”.

    If I remember correctly, even putting NSFW warning images on cigarettes didn’t do much.

    • aaron@infosec.pub
      2·
      3 days ago

      Not only were health warnings self‐identified as an important source of health information about smoking, but also an effective means of communicating health information. The results provide evidence at both the individual and country‐level that health warnings on cigarette packages are strongly associated with health knowledge.

      …

      his pattern is best illustrated in the case of smokers’ knowledge of impotence. Canada was the only country where packages carry warnings about impotence, and accordingly, Canadian smokers were almost three times more likely than smokers from the other three countries to believe that smoking causes impotence.

      https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2593056/#sec14

      Honestly, blah blah blah I don’t think it would change much of anything blah blah blah is just really silly. The information is out there, why not look at it?

      • De_Narm@lemmy.world
        01·
        2 days ago

        I never questioned the effectiveness in terms of teaching the consumer. As I’ve said, I’m in favor of that and it’s great.

        However, people tend to continue their consumtion despite better knowledge. At least I remember this being the case with cigarettes. So it does almost nothing for the general health of your population. As others already mentioned, plain labels, a ban on marketing and similar actions are probably far more effective.

        • aaron@infosec.pub
          2·
          2 days ago

          Provide evidence and I will read it.

          I am not interested in baseless claims that may or may not be relevant.