The Yukon territory in Canada will be the first place in the world to trial the sale of alcoholic drinks carrying labels warning of an elevated risk of cancer (pictured).
“Yukon has a chance to be a leader in Canada, as well as internationally, to demonstrate the potential benefits of labelling alcohol containers,” said Brendan Hanley, the territory’s chief medical officer.
For the next eight months the new warning labels will be applied to alcoholic products sold at the Whitehorse Liquor Store in Whitehorse, the western territory’s capital this month.
As elsewhere in the world labels have previously targeted pregnant women and warned of the dangers of combining alcohol consumption with operating machinery.
The eye-catching new labels are part of the second phase of the Northern Territories Alcohol Study led by researchers from Public Health Ontario and the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria.
This experiment is informed by the unit’s recent research on the potential benefits of enhanced labelling. There have previously been surveys to assess the cancer warning labels in Australia.
Yukon has the highest alcohol sales per head in in Canada.
Sources: www.gov.yk.ca/news/17-251.html; https://www.uvic.ca/research/centres/cisur/about/news/current/alcohol-warning-labels-about-cancer-risk-a-canadian-first.php; http://nationalpost.com/health/yukon-rolls-out-world-first-labels-warning-alcohol-can-cause-cancer; http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yukon-alcohol-warning-labels-cancer-1.4414726