Sir, – Cancer warnings on alcohol products have been debated at length but based on the experience with cigarette packaging they run the risk of becoming effectively invisible due to constant exposure and lack of informational content.
A related idea which has not received as much attention here but which would be far more useful to the general public is requiring the unit alcohol content per container to be included on the label.
This was pledged by drinks companies in the UK back in 2013 and was broadly complied with at the end of 2014.
Although the arithmetic is simple the fact that a fairly typical 500ml bottle of beer with 4.4 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV) contains 2.2 units of alcohol still comes as a surprise to many.
A pint of the beer which now seems to be our national symbol comes in at just under 2.4 units.
As with calorie labels for food there is little point in providing guidance in terms of abstract units without giving labels to match. – Yours, etc,
DAVID FRENCH,
Ashford,
Co Wicklow.