Hearing_AlcoholHealthClaims

Hearing on Alcohol Health Claims

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) Hearing on Alcohol Health Claims (Notice No. 884)

Testimony by Dianne M. Berlin,
Legislation/Citizenship Director
National Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

Given at the Washington Convention Center; 900 Ninth St., NW.; Washington, DC. on April 26, 2000.

Thank you for the privilege of testifying on this very important issue of health claims on the labels on alcoholic beverages.

My name is Dianne Berlin and I am the Legislation/Citizenship Director of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

The National WCTU has celebrated our 125th year. The impact of alcohol on the lives of real people is the very reason for the WCTU's embracing of and never wavering on our stand on abstinence.

From health, social, and economic perspectives, the use of alcohol has proven to be beneficial primarily to the producers and pushers of this particular drug at huge costs to the users and through the second-hand effects to the rest of society as well.

A large part of my personal concern revolved and still revolves around the TOTALLY PREVENTABLE destruction caused by the use of alcohol.

These health claims on labels do not seem to be a well deliberated idea of the health community. Instead it smells of more marketing propaganda by the booze merchants.

Alcoholic beverage forces have tried very hard over the years to avoid having alcohol called a drug. Now, they want it to be called a health food!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alcohol is a mind-altering drug. It is a depressant. In fact it is a narcotic as defined by the World Health Organization.

Alcohol is a poison. Yes, it appears on Poison Control lists. Any container which contains alcohol should have Mr. uk on the label I have yet to see one of those on a bottle of wine, beer or liquor!! In my estimation, a Mr.Yuk label would be a far more beneficial and accurate project for the BATF than the one under discussion today.

Advocating a baby aspirin because it can help prevent heart attacks gets a warning to check with your physician first. To my knowledge, there have never been any such warnings when the drug named is alcohol. The print media does not usually give accurately the rest of the story until about three-fourths of the way through the article. The accurate rest of the story states that if one is an abstainer this is no reason to begin. On any health claim label, a question to be answered is what would be the information and misconceptions gleaned and retained by the reader?

I have a press announcement regarding a long-term study on alcohol by researchers in Scotland which tracked 5,766 men over a 21 year period. They found NO clear relation between alcohol consumption and mortality from coronary heart disease, but there is a strong relation with mortality from stroke. (1)

"There is no scientific consensus today over the protective effect of alcohol," says Dominique Gillot, France's secretary of state for health. "The link between the quantity of alcohol consumed and increase of risk of diseases, particularly cancer, is, on the other hand, scientifically validated." A very large study on heart disease by the World Health Organization has dispelled the French Paradox. Now, the French have instituted a major battle on alcohol including what is almost a total ban on alcohol advertising. (2)

Alcohol use kills 100,000 people each year in the US and some of them never consumed alcohol.Â How healthy is that?? This fact is an enormous warning

Several years ago, I attended an Alcohol Policy Conference in Charleston, SC. A physician was on a panel and when asked about putting alcohol under the FDA, he was in total agreement. He stated that there was a drug which helped people who suffered from chronic pain who were not helped by any other drug or non-drug treatment. Because this particular drug killed FIVE people in a year, it was taken off the market!

We have a bumper sticker in Pennsylvania which states that IMPAIRMENT BEGINS WITH THE FIRST DRINK.

Alcohol affects the decision-making process as well as our reflexes. Decisions made under the influence of alcohol while studying, while in an emergency room, when deciding to have or not have sex, while parenting, on the job, when driving or operating other vehicles, etc., are all impaired decisions. Some people are affected far more than others. Many of these decisions have long term and far reaching, devastating ramifications.

How many unplanned pregnancies would not have occurred, how many people would not have AIDS, how many rapes, murders would not have been committed, etc. if people had not been under the influence of alcohol when they made these critical decisions? Imagine how many babies would NOT have been born with FAS and FAE.

What about the link of alcohol use and breast, prostate, and other cancers?

Has this been addressed by the alcoholic beverage health claim pushers?? Oh, yes, we cannot forget about cirrhosis of the liver!

Adults who are reaching their senior years can be very bright, alert and discerning. On the other hand, they can also suffer impairment of judgment for many reasons including ill health, medications, etc.

An elderly man I know was advised by his physician to eat two fiber wafers in the morning to help Mother Nature. Instead of just two wafers, he ate a box and a half in one day! This over zealous use of fiber had Mother Nature respond promptly. The same type of poor judgment and not following instructions with alcohol could have and did have disastrous results. That man is now in a dementia care facility with Alcohol Dementia. He also suffered from B-12 deficiency because he was drinking and not eating. Severe paranoia was the symptom of that. He called alcohol his medicine. That man is my father. I would like to rephrase that potent commercial with the frying pan and the egg. This was my father's brain. This is my father's brain on alcohol.

I have included an article on Alcohol Dementia (3) which probably won't be addressed by very many people testifying before this panel. This condition has huge health care costs to be considered even if you didn't care about the human impact.

The damage which is done to the brain by alcohol cannot be minimized. I have included another article in which a study has found that short-term alcoholics suffer the same brain damage as long term alcoholics.(4)

Alcohol problems among our elderly population are just beginning to come under scrutiny. The affect of alcohol is seen to be a cause of many falls resulting in fractures. Impairment does indeed begin with the first drink.

Our youth follow the example set by adults. We had better weigh the facts very carefully before we make more foolish and costly mistakes. Alcohol use among our youth is already at obscene numbers even though this is an illegal drug for them. Imagine if it is declared a healthy thing to consume alcohol.

Whenever making a decision on the use of a drug for a legitimate medical reason, the drug-free solution is the wiser when it is available and effective.To do otherwise involves taking unnecessary health risks.

Every single negative effect on the mind and body and the impairment of the thought processes should be on the label should these so-called health claims ever make it onto the alcoholic beverage containers.

Let's also add the various issues of crimes, impact on family life...the domestic violence ... divorce, impact on productivity in the workplace, impact on the health of COAs, the cost to the welfare, health care and criminal justice systems, etc. related to the use of alcohol.

I have a container from a neighbor' prescription. On it, the actual name of the drug is really secondary to the eye-catching warning label. This warning label even states that you are not to consume alcohol while taking this drug.......... one more reason not to enter into these treacherous waters.

Proper warnings on prescription drugs have type on the warning larger than the largest type on the label and is usually the most outstanding part.

As foolish as this concept of health claim labels on alcohol is to those of us who know the downside of alcohol use, it may actually be a good thing to have this issue raised so that those in the general public and our governmental decision makers are aware that there is a growing voice which is crying out for the booze merchants to be silenced.

We are tired of the propaganda. We are tired of the death, destruction and heartache of the use of this narcotic. We want truth and decisions made regarding alcohol which are made with the primary concern being the health and safety of people. We want a real War on Drugs which includes alcohol.

The booze merchants are producing a narcotic with dangerous first and second-hand side effects. They do not deserve the controlling voice in public policy regarding their drug.

The FDA is where narcotics need to be. IF there are valid health claims which far outweigh the negatives, the FDA is the place for this to be decided, NOT the BATF which I thought was a regulatory agency, not a vehicle for promotion. We would favor putting alcohol under the urisdiction of the FDA. If they are insisting on making health claims then alcohol needs to be under the same rules and scrutiny as any other narcotic.

It is our organization's position to oppose all health claims on alcoholic beverage containers given the extensive list of negative impacts of this drug on the user as well as the secondhand effects on society-at-large. We strongly urge you to consider the health and safety of all of our citizens and refuse to put any kind of label which could be interpreted as an endorsement of the use of alcohol.

Thank you again for this opportunity.

(1) New Study Says No Health Gain From Alcohol, 6/28/ 99

(3) Alcohol Dementia, 07/14/99

(4) Short-Term, Long-Term Alcoholics Suffer Same Damage, 2/ 17/ 2000