Madam, – In your Editorial (September 24th) you refer to the lack of Government action to stem the tide of the availability of alcohol. As a health specialist I despair of the following: in a 2006 Coombe hospital study eliciting the extent of alcohol use during pregnancy (1985-2007), 63 per cent of women reported alcohol use during pregnancy, of which seven per cent drank six or more standard drinks per week. Taking the number of births each year and those engaged in high-risk drinking, these figures would suggest that at least 4,500 children each year are at increased risk of harm from maternal alcohol use. Labelling on all alcoholic drinks warning pregnant mothers of not drinking during pregnancy was recommended in 2006 on foot of this report.
Foetal alcohol spectrum disorders are the leading known cause of intellectual disabilities which are 100 per cent preventable (www.fasd.ie). Over a lifetime it costs approximately €900,000 to maintain the life of an adult who has been brain damaged in the womb due to alcohol.
Is there anything more important than informed mothers and the future health and welfare of our children? Why the delay in labelling? – Yours, etc,