Panel Urged to Adopt Alcohol Warnings

Physicians, members of anti-alcohol abuse groups and several lawmakers called on Congress Wednesday to require warning labels on beer, wine and liquor containers to help combat ignorance about the health effects of drinking alcohol.

While most people appear to be aware of such alcohol-related risks as alcoholism, liver disease and auto accidents, few know about other serious effects, such as fetal alcohol syndrome, the second-leading cause of mental retardation in the United States, the experts said at a congressional hearing.

‘Potentially Dangerous’

“Warning labels will not end alcohol problems,” said Christine Lubinski, an official of the National Council on Alcoholism. “But they will provide Americans with important information about the products they are consuming and will notify the public that alcohol is a potentially dangerous drug.”

Alcohol industry representatives interviewed Wednesday said labels were unnecessary because most people are already aware of the risks of drinking alcohol. Adding a label to alcoholic drinks, they said, could even lead people to discount warnings on other products.

“Labeling would just be telling people what they already know,” said James T. Sanders, president of the Washington-based Beer Institute. “ . . . If you already know the dangers of alcohol but the government puts a warning on anyway, the government loses its credibility.”

Industry officials chose not to take part in the hearing, contending they had already made their position clear. Their absence prompted a rebuke from Sen. Albert Gore Jr., chairman of the consumer subcommittee of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

“They’ve chosen to duck this hearing. . . . I think that’s wrong,” Gore said. “If they want some kind of compromise, the time is now to come forward. I call on the industry today to demonstrate some kind of commitment to the public interest.”

5 Rotating Labels

A bill co-sponsored by Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) and Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), would require that all alcoholic beverage containers be marked with one of five warning labels on a rotating basis. The labels caution that drinking impairs a person’s ability to drive; can be hazardous if done in combination with drug use; can increase the risk of hypertension, liver disease and cancer; can be addictive, and, when done by a pregnant woman, can cause retardation in the child she is carrying.

William T. Drake, deputy director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, reiterating the Reagan Administration’s longstanding opposition to alcohol labeling, told the subcommittee that no decision should be made on the bill before his agency completes a study this fall on whether the labels would achieve their intended effect.

But several witnesses and subcommittee members said they believed enough studies had been done.

Way to Impart Knowledge

“Enormous evidence shows that Americans are largely unknowledgeable about the risks of alcohol and addiction,” said Conyers. “Evidence also shows that warning labels are the quickest, cheapest and probably most effective means of imparting the necessary knowledge.”

Witnesses cited statistics showing that about 100,000 Americans die every year from alcohol-related causes, about one-quarter of them in auto accidents. About another 5,000 babies are born each year with fetal alcohol syndrome, a condition characterized by retardation, low birth weight and facial disfigurement.

Kenneth L. Jones, a pioneer researcher on the syndrome, said that consumption by a pregnant woman of only one or two alcoholic beverages a day can cause the condition.