‘Hazards to Your Health’

Surely The Times (editorial, “Hazards to Your Health,” Aug. 14) doth protest too much when it opposed warning labels on alcoholic beverages. Alcohol and tobacco are the only two potentially addictive products legally sold directly to consumers despite their destructive impact on our nation’s health. They’re also the only two drugs backed by over $2 billion each in advertising annually.

Keeping consumers in the dark about when it’s safe to drink and when it’s best to abstain simply doesn’t make sense when over 100,000 Americans die each year from alcohol-related causes.

Over 100 public health and consumer organizations; former First Lady Betty Ford; Dr. Otis Bowen, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services; the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and four out of five Americans support warning labels on beer, wine and liquor containers.

Alcohol producers, however, are vigorously fighting this measure because they don’t want consumers to associate drinking with mental retardation, alcoholism, cirrhosis of the liver, and death on the highways. It’s time for Congress to act to require alcohol producers to provide this important information.

PATRICIA TAYLOR

Director, Alcohol Policies Project

Center for Science in

the Public Interest

Washington, D.C.