Ministry of Public Health to be strict with warnings on labels of alcoholic drinks.
The Ministry of Public Health is to propose a law forcing manufacturers to add a warning and picture to labels of alcoholic beverages, to show the dangers of alcohol use. It will also prohibit the use of images of sportsmen, actors, or cartoon characters on labels. Also, the warning will be edited down from 5 sentences to 3 sentences.
Doctor Narong Sahamethapat, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health said the Ministry had organized a conference of the Alcohol Control Committee to lessen the increasing number of alcohol drinkers. The drafting of subordinate laws was also considered at the conference. The first was a draft declaration by the Alcohol Control Committee on rules, means and condition of alcoholic drink labels. The second was a draft declaration by the Alcohol Control Committee on a warning and picture on an alcoholic beverage label. The next one was a draft declaration by the Royal Thai Government on restricting the selling and drinking of alcohol in some places on a train. The last one was a draft regulation by the Alcohol Control Committee on rules of comparison, as mentioned in The Alcohol Beverage Control Act B.E. 2551.
Doctor Nopporn Cheunklin, deputy Director-General of the Department of Communicable Disease Control said the main point of the draft declarations by the Alcohol Control Committee on rules, means and condition of alcoholic beverage labels is that labels on alcoholic beverages must contain a warning and a picture showing the dangers of alcohol. The size of the warning and picture must equal or be bigger than one-quarter of the largest side of the label. Pictures that will be used on the label are scenes of motorcycle accidents.
As for advertisements, the warning must be shown on the top of the advertisement. The size of the warning must be at least one-third of the whole advertisement. Again the written warning was edited from 5 sentences to 3 sentences stating the dangers present in drinking alcoholic beverages.
