Experts are concerned that the alcohol industry may be deliberately delaying the inclusion of Government-mandated pregnancy warnings across its products, after new research showed only 63% of alcoholic beverages displayed the label – despite being given a generous three-year grace period to comply.
The study by The George Institute for Global Health, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, analysed around 6,000 alcohol products sold in four large stores in Sydney from June to November 2023, to uncover the worrying finding.
The warning labels are intended to ensure consumers are informed that drinking while pregnant increases the risk of potential life-long health issues in unborn children. Businesses were given three years from 31 July 2020 to 31 July 2023 to implement these requirements.
Lead author of the new paper, Professor Simone Pettigrew, Head of Health Promotion at The George Institute for Global Health and Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney, says the research demonstrates the need for improved alcohol health warning regulation and more thorough Government monitoring to protect babies’ health.
“The industry fought hard against pregnancy warning labels when they were mandated by Government in 2020, after 20 years of lobbying to bring Australia in line with the evidence and WHO recommendations,” she says. “Yet, even with three years to display standardised pregnancy warnings on all new packaging, more than a third of products we analysed did not do so.
“Our analysis purposely straddled the end of the transition period, and the results suggest that alcohol companies may have deliberately used the phase-in period as a loophole to delay introducing mandated pregnancy warnings for fear of losing sales.
“Most alarmingly, only half of spirits, which have the highest levels of alcohol by volume, showed the pregnancy warning,” she says.
Other studies have demonstrated that some Australian women remain confused about whether they can drink alcohol while pregnant – around one-third of women say they have. Giving women warning information has been shown to motivate them to avoid drinking while pregnant.
Prof Pettigrew says the analysis found that 25% of alcohol products carried their own versions of pregnancy warnings instead, a concern because research consistently shows that industry-designed warnings are less effective than warnings developed using evidence-based approaches.
Evidence shows drinking alcohol during pregnancy can cause low birthweight, premature birth, and foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) in unborn babies, leading to health issues throughout life that can include physical, cognitive, developmental, and behavioural problems.
FASD is an emerging public health issue in Australia, with data suggesting it impacts between 1 and 5% of children in high income countries. More local data is needed to respond adequately, especially for the most vulnerable groups.
