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NTSB Issues Recommendations to Eliminate Drunk Driving
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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently issued a recommendation to reduce the illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) per se limit from .08 to .05 or lower in the U.S. to save lives and prevent injuries. The recommendation would bring the U.S. standard in line with more than 100 nations including Australia, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, South Africa, and Spain. In 2011, 9,878 people were killed in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes in the U.S., accounting for 31% of the total motor vehicle traffic fatalities nationwide. More than 180,000 people were injured, and drunk driving crashes now cost America $130 billion annually. Alcohol Justice stands with the NTSB in supporting the recommended limit change as an important step to save lives and prevent alcohol-related harm.
L.A. City Council Closer to Banning Alcohol Ads on City Property
L.A. City Council Moves Closer to Banning Alcohol Ads on City Property
After several years of delays, the Los Angeles City Council will soon consider a motion to create an ordinance to ban alcohol ads from L.A. city-owned or controlled property. The motion, put forward by Public Safety Committee Chair Mitchell Englander, will now move before the full City Council for its approval. If passed, the City Attorney will draft the ordinance language. Supported by the Los Angeles Coalition to Ban Alcohol Ads on Public Property, Alcohol Justice, and many other public health advocates, the ban would substantially reduce the number of outdoor display surfaces available to alcohol advertisers in the city of L.A. “I would like to thank the community for bringing this important issue to our attention,” said Councilmember Englander. “By banning alcohol advertisements on City property on future City contracts, we have taken an essential step in making the City of Los Angeles safer for our children and families.”
UCSF Study: Tobacco & Alcohol Industries Joined Forces
Authors of a new study out of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education examined the ties between the tobacco and alcohol industries and explored the extent to which the two sectors collaborated to combat legislation and influence policymaking. It found that tobacco companies started building coalitions with the alcohol industry in the early 1980s, and the two industries have continued to have a covert funding and lobbying alliance that may have affected legislation as well as public perception.Their analysis, entitled "Vested Interests in addiction research and policy: Alliance between tobacco and alcohol industries to shape public policy," was published in the May 2013 edition of Addiction. To read more about the study, click here.Diageo, DISCUS, & Voluntary Labels
Last week, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) issued a ruling that allows alcohol producers to add "Serving Facts" labels to their products - yes, the same kind of labels required on packaged food and drink items. For alcohol, however, the ruling is voluntary - companies can select when and on which products they want to highlight serving information, and for which products it is in their best interest to leave them off. Thus, it's a win-win for manufacturers: they gain a marketing tool; inch potentially harmful products ever closer to being treated as nonalcoholic beverages; and spin the labels as a win for public health. Not surprisingly, the alcohol industry - particularly distillers - erupted in applause at the TTB's announcement. Diageo issued a press release (at nearly the same time as the TTB) that cooed about the"victory for public health and American consumers." The distilled spirits council (DISCUS) issued a similarly obnoxious statement, in which they "applaud the TTB" for "one of the most significant TTB labeling initiatives for distilled spirits, beer and wine in decades."
Let's get real here: Industry support of alcohol serving facts labels is not actually about reducing alcohol-related harm and improving public health. Distilled spirits producers are excited because they have gained another tool in their arsenal, to be deployed selectively when it serves their bottom line. On the marketing end of the table, alcohol companies have carved out product niches for the last several years among weight- and health-conscious drinkers, as our report Questionable Claims from the Alcohol Industry: From Protein Vodka to Weight Loss Beer illuminates. Products such as SkinnyGirl that are marketed as "low calorie" or "low carb" may choose to sport a serving facts label, while the products that are high in calories and sugar most likely will not. When viewed as simply another marketing tool, it's easy to see how such a ruling will likely serve to significantly increase positive perceptions about alcoholic beverages and their brands, thus leading to increased sales and consumption.
The TTB ruling on serving fact labels offers alcohol corporations the perfect combination of benefits: It is voluntary, so it can be used whenever and however the producer sees fit. It employs the same label format as the food and nonalcoholic beverage industry. Finally, it allows producers to call voluntary, self-promoting alcohol serving labels contributions to public health, which they most definitely are not.
Sorry guys; we're not buying it. Rather than using (and celebrating) this ruling as permission to use serving facts labels to market their products, all alcohol producers should be required to list all ingredients and provide factual information in a way that does not promote consumption. Alcohol is considered "no ordinary commodity" for a reason, and should be labeled as such.
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