54% of Canadians Support Health Warnings on Alcoholic Beverage Bottles, Study Finds

Fifty-five percent of survey respondents said warning labels stating the serious health risks of alcohol would make them think about the harms caused by alcohol either to a small or moderate extent. shutterstock/Africa Studio

Canadians support the posting of warning labels on alcoholic beverages, results of a confidential poll by Health Canada has found, although 28 percent of respondents said the warnings would not impact their drinking habits.

Fifty-four percent of those surveyed agreed cans and bottles of beer, wine and liquor should be labelled with a health warning describing the known link between alcohol and diseases such as cancer in a bid to increase public awareness of the harm caused by drinking. Twenty-four percent disagreed and 19 percent of respondents had no preference.

When asked if warning labels would convince them to cut back on alcohol consumption, 28 percent said “not at all,” while 29 percent said “to a small extent,” and 21 percent said to a “moderate extent.” Eighteen percent said the labels would modify the amount they drink to a large or extremely large extent.

“While alcohol is socially accepted and its use widely tolerated and promoted, particularly in comparison with other substances, it has one of the most significant impacts on the health and wellbeing of Canadians compared to other substances,” reads the Health Canada report, which was first obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.

The report noted that there were more than 17,000 alcohol-related deaths, including deaths from alcohol poisoning and impaired driving, and 652,000 emergency visits in Canada in 2020.

It also pointed to alcohol’s link to more than 200 diseases and conditions including cirrhosis of the liver, cardiovascular disease, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. The report also noted that alcohol consumption increases one’s risk of seven types of cancer.

Fifty-five percent of respondents said warning labels stating the serious health risks of alcohol would make them think about the harms caused by alcohol either to a small or moderate extent while 25 percent said it would impact them to a large or extremely large extent. Twenty-three percent said they would not think about it at all.

After being shown a sample of a label, “an increasing proportion of respondents” said they would think more about the risks, with 17 percent saying they would do so to a large extent and 10 percent to an extremely large extent. Only 21 percent continued to say it would not make them think about the health risks.

Drinking Behaviours

The survey, which was based on questionnaires with 9,812 people nationwide and included Canadians as young as 16, also polled respondents about how much they drink on a daily basis.

Respondents are more likely to drink on the weekend than during the week, with Saturday being the most common day for consuming alcohol, the survey found. They averaged 1.6 drinks on Saturdays, 1.3 drinks on Fridays and 0.7 drinks on Sundays.

In a typical week, respondents averaged less than one drink a day from Mondays through Thursdays.

The drink of choice for 41 percent of participants is wine while 27 percent prefer beer. Twenty-one percent prefer spirits and seven percent opt for coolers or hard ciders.

While not drinking at all has multiple health benefits, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) says those who consume no more than two standard drinks each week can “likely” avoid alcohol-related consequences.

The centre’s alcohol drinking guidelines define a standard drink as one bottle of beer or cider, a five-ounce glass of wine or 1.5-ounce shot of liquor.

“Each additional standard drink radically increases the risk of alcohol-related consequences,” the CCSA says on its website.

Drinking between three and six alcoholic beverages each week increases one’s risk of developing cancer and seven or more drinks per week significantly increases the risk of heart disease or stroke, the CCSA says.

Health Canada’s report said cancer is the leading cause of alcohol-attributable mortality in both men and women.

It also revealed that youth, women and indigenous people “are disproportionately impacted by over-consumption” of alcohol.

“Approximately 25 percent of youth in Grades 7 to 12 used alcohol excessively in 2019 and the alcohol attributed death rate for women increased by 26 percent from 2001 to 2017, compared with a roughly 5 percent increase over the same period for men,” the study says.

The federal government paid $296,739 for the survey, which was conducted by Nanos Research.