Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-04-Speech-2-338"
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"en.20070904.28.2-338"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, alcohol-related damage is a growing problem. The figures speak for themselves. Five per cent of men and 1% of women are addicted to alcohol. Twenty-five per cent of deaths in young people aged 15 to 30 are alcohol-related. Child abuse is often the result of excessive drinking. These figures often conceal a lot of suffering. Addiction, medical problems, social misery, abuse, all these things are well known. Less well known are the serious consequences of drinking alcohol when pregnant. There may be serious harm to the unborn child. Children with foetal alcohol syndrome are damaged for life. It is increasingly recognised that drinking is extremely harmful to children and young people. Youth drinking can cause lasting damage and can adversely affect academic performance and IQ.
Obviously, measures are needed quickly to dissuade youngsters and pregnant women from drinking. One of the most effective ways may be health warnings on bottles. So I urge Member States to bring forward proposals as soon as possible to make health warnings compulsory. In the absence of any European legislation each Member State is free to make its own rules. Warnings on bottles are effective, as studies in the USA have already shown. And I urge the drinks industry to take responsibility itself for warning young people and pregnant women about alcohol. Better to warn people now than face a whole lot of damage claims in ten years' time. Warnings are now a normal part of social responsibility, in which the drinks industry too must share.
Lastly, I call on the Commission to come up with adequate proposals at the earliest opportunity. It is hard to see why warnings on cigarette packets have not been followed by warnings against alcohol. So I urge the Commission please to waste no time in introducing measures to make health warnings aimed at young people and pregnant women compulsory. It is important to place the health of the public above the interests of the wine industry."@en1
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