SHOCK WARNING PROPOSED FOR FRENCH WINE LABELS: "ALCOHOL BAD FOR HEALTH"

If French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand’s proposal passes, beginning next year all beer, wine, and liquor bottles will have a new warning label stating “Alcohol Bad For Health”. Just like the warning labels on cigarette packages.
The proposal was made after the presentation of a report on alcoholism by journalist Hervè Chabalier, from which emerged a dramatic picture: each year alcohol causes the death of 45,000 people, and due to this sad fact, the country leads the European classifications for male mortality rates caused by liquor consumption. Alcoholism results in over 17 billion euros in damage in France each year, equal to about 1.42% of the country’s GDP, while cigarette damages cost only 0.8%. And because of this cost, the idea developed to add warning labels to wine bottles similar to those on cigarette packs. A proposal that has French wine makers (already in difficulty due to international competition and related decline in consumption) in an uproar.