Alcohol warning labels haven’t changed in 35 years. Could an update help people cut back on drinking?

You may be surprised to hear that Ireland — the land of Guinness and St. Patrick’s Day revelries — is also slated to become the first country in the European Union (and second worldwide) to better regulate booze by adding cancer warnings and health information to alcohol products. What’s even more surprising? The U.S. hasn’t updated its own alcohol warning labels in 35 years — despite the fact that we’ve learned a lot since then about alcohol and its associated health risks.

What’s the current status of alcohol warning labels in the U.S.?

Globally, only a quarter of countries require health warnings on alcohol, according to the New York Times. The U.S. is one of those countries, but labels in the U.S. haven’t been updated since 1989.

Currently, warning labels say that “women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects” and that “consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems.”

Christopher Kahler, a psychiatry professor and director of alcohol and addiction studies at Brown University, tells Yahoo Life that current labels focus on messaging intended to mitigate the acute risks from alcohol — like the immediate effects on a pregnancy or driving abilities — instead of relaying information on health consequences that can arise later on. The World Health Organization has identified alcohol as a carcinogen and says that no amount of alcohol is considered safe for our health. Yet many are unaware of the harmful health consequences of drinking that experts have been flagging for years; research shows that 51% of people don’t know that alcohol is associated with increased risk of cancer, for example.

Kahler says that in their current form, he would be “very surprised” if warning labels on alcohol were having any effect on drinking habits.

“My guess is most people don't look at that label, and what they see on the label is nothing new,” he says. “And so my guess is it's having very little impact on people's behavior.”

If done well, can warning labels actually work?

One recent study found that when young men looked at alcohol warning labels that were larger and included a picture of a young man with a bloody face, they experienced “lower activation of the reward circuits in their brains,” and the warning labels “significantly reduced their reported desire to drink.”

Another study conducted in the Yukon in Canada found that adding labels to alcohol that included information on cancer risks not only reduced alcohol sales, but it also found that people who bought alcohol with the new warning labels better remembered information about national drinking guidelines and cancer risks.

“These colorful, well-designed labels, which rotated across four message areas, reduced consumption in the area where the labels were introduced by 6.3% compared with control areas and the neighboring jurisdiction of the Northwest Territories,” study author Tim Stockwell, a scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, tells Yahoo Life. “By contrast the U.S. warning labels have had hardly any effect on behavior — though they did a little for knowledge and awareness.”

Cigarette warning labels and package inserts are the poster child for successfully relaying a product’s health risks, with illustrated, detailed messages such as “smoking causes head and neck cancer” and “smoking can cause heart disease and strokes by clogging arteries” and “smoking reduces blood flow, which can cause erectile dysfunction.”

Suzanne Colby, deputy director of the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University, tells Yahoo Life that warning labels on cigarettes have effectively increased knowledge about health risks, decreased the appeal of cigarettes and increased intentions to quit smoking. While it’s less clear and less studied whether these warning labels have led to a decrease in smoking habits, she says such public health messaging could be used for alcohol as a way to get the word out that it’s harmful.

“Given the massive knowledge gap for alcohol consumers, warning labels that are more specific and updated seem an ideal regulatory option since we know labels can increase knowledge — and knowledge can change norms and ultimately lead to behavior change,” Colby says.

What changes could make alcohol warning labels more effective?

Experts emphasize that updating warning labels won’t necessarily guarantee changes in behavior, but providing more information — and making that information easier to find — can help people become better informed, which may lead to modifications in drinking habits. Here’s how alcohol warning labels could be altered to be more effective.

• Include more detailed, up-to-date health information. Most consumers are unaware of the disease risks — particularly the cancer risks — of even moderate drinking. Current warning labels vaguely mention that alcohol “may cause health problems,” but providing more detailed health information is critical, experts say. “I think almost everyone in my field agrees that what is more important is providing consumers with information about the potential impact [of the] product on [their] health,” Stockwell says.

• Make the labels more colorful and visible. Warning labels are currently on the back of alcohol bottles, tucked in with other information where they can easily be missed. “They are presently small, black-and-white, not prominently placed, wordy and haven’t changed in 35 years,” Stockwell says. “They need to be larger, colorful … they must have features which ensure they are highly visible, clear and credible.” Kahler says they could also include some kind of graphic. “It could be an icon, but something that makes it stand out from other text on the bottle that makes it more visible,” he says.

• Add more info on drink serving sizes. “People often don't know how much they're drinking,” Kahler says. “You can find the percent [of] alcohol somewhere on the bottle, but you often have to look. And then even once you've done that, doing the math to figure out how many drinks are in the beverage that you're having requires some calculations in the moment that make it more challenging for people to know exactly what they're putting in their body.” Kahler says people are often surprised to hear what the recommended daily limits are for alcohol consumption. Having readily available information on what constitutes one drink or serving for different types of alcohol is key.

• Update the labels regularly. The work shouldn’t ever really end. Periodically updating the information or look of alcohol warning labels can keep them from getting “stale” and easy to ignore. “If you see the same label every single time and it's just a little bit of words on the back, it's not something that people are going to notice,” Kahler says.