Thai Ministry of Public Health strict with label warnings on alcoholic drinks

[webfact]

Ministry of Public Health strict with label warnings on alcoholic drinks

BANGKOK: -- 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.

[nnt]2014-08-13[/nnt]

[thesetat2013]

Wow! I know i had better buy all my booze now before they start to do this. Surely i will never touch acohol again if i have to see those pics and warnings.

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Chonburiram]

Wow! I know i had better buy all my booze now before they start to do this. Surely i will never touch acohol again if i have to see those pics and warnings.

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

They give a shít what you do - it's the next generation who counts. Growing up with these warnings will have some influence.

[CelticBhoy]

"Pictures that will be used on the label are scenes of motorcycle accidents."

 

Should have Somchai in his Fortuner shaking in his flip-flops.
 

[h90]

 

Wow! I know i had better buy all my booze now before they start to do this. Surely i will never touch acohol again if i have to see those pics and warnings.

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

They give a shít what you do - it's the next generation who counts. Growing up with these warnings will have some influence.

 

 

yes sure. They'll see the label and instead drinking they will sit down and learn for their next exam.....

Seems you and the law-makers were never young.

[NongKhaiKid]

The bars I have been known to ' occasionally ' visit in various cities and municipalities in the North East cannot display anything that shows alcohol so,  for example,  no beer mats,  bar towels,  posters,  bunting etc.

 

No direct advertising on television but what about the sports events that are sponsored by beer companies etc. as around the arena every second sign shows the company name ?   I can't see such sponsorship being stopped as it's too valuable,  the companies are big and well connected.

 

The whole attitude is hard to understand.

[ChrisY1]

The bars I have been known to ' occasionally ' visit in various cities and municipalities in the North East cannot display anything that shows alcohol so,  for example,  no beer mats,  bar towels,  posters,  bunting etc.

 

No direct advertising on television but what about the sports events that are sponsored by beer companies etc. as around the arena every second sign shows the company name ?   I can't see such sponsorship being stopped as it's too valuable,  the companies are big and well connected.

 

The whole attitude is hard to understand.

 

But it's quite ok for companies like Singha to have massive bill boards and signage on tower blocks in BKK advertising their amber fluid.....

Chang do similar and are massive sponsers of local and International sports......!!

[jayjayjayjay]

What next, "prohibition" ----------> moonshine -----------> moonshine related deaths and blindness ---------> end of prohibition ----------> Thai government catches up with Euro allows 18 year olds to make there own mind if they want to drink or not and legalise soft drugs..  Could be 2050. Buy that time Thailand would have lost all the charm and reasons people came here anyway (ganja on the beach in the 80's) 5555555

[Misterwhisper]

I propose to use carefully selected images of a certain politician on every bottle accompanied by the health warning, "Alcohol abuse may lead to chronic ear infection!"

 

That will put a lot of people off the booze, no doubt.

Edited August 13, 2014 by Misterwhisper

[jayjayjayjay]

 

Wow! I know i had better buy all my booze now before they start to do this. Surely i will never touch acohol again if i have to see those pics and warnings.

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

They give a shít what you do - it's the next generation who counts. Growing up with these warnings will have some influence.

 

 

You think anyone over 18 needs warnings on labels to make a decision! Why not cover petrol stations with pictures of blood and guts. Why not have hardware stores showing repeated large screen TV videos of collapsing buildings blood, guts and brains all over the place. Why not have 7/11's postered with heart disease dying people. Why not enforce newspapers to have the full front page a picture of a desolate earth fried from tree loose. Why not have your refrigerator, airconditioner and TV all start up with a lecture on global warming and 15 minutes of graphic radiation poisoned people withering to death.  You give a shit, piss off. This is stupid bs.

[sjjmmi]

What next, "prohibition" ----------> moonshine -----------> moonshine related deaths and blindness ---------> end of prohibition ----------> Thai government catches up with Euro allows 18 year olds to make there own mind if they want to drink or not and legalise soft drugs..  Could be 2050. Buy that time Thailand would have lost all the charm and reasons people came here anyway (ganja on the beach in the 80's) 5555555

It's 2257 here already . . . . . LOL Edited August 13, 2014 by sjjmmi

[hakancnx]

2557 it is....

[sjjmmi]

2557 it is....

Typo error LOL

[BudRight]

Health is not public. It is private.

[schondie]

Maybe some really graphic warnings are needed, something along these lines.

[DualSportBiker]

How do you know they are not pushing their water products??? I suspect the two major players will hide behind water to get away with their brand advertising...

The bars I have been known to ' occasionally ' visit in various cities and municipalities in the North East cannot display anything that shows alcohol so,  for example,  no beer mats,  bar towels,  posters,  bunting etc.
 
No direct advertising on television but what about the sports events that are sponsored by beer companies etc. as around the arena every second sign shows the company name ?   I can't see such sponsorship being stopped as it's too valuable,  the companies are big and well connected.
 
The whole attitude is hard to understand.

 
But it's quite ok for companies like Singha to have massive bill boards and signage on tower blocks in BKK advertising their amber fluid.....
Chang do similar and are massive sponsers of local and International sports......!!

Sent - how is not that important...

[nisakiman]

I wonder how much longer we are going to put up with these interfering busybodies in 'Public Health'? It seems their sole raison d'être is to deny us of anything in life which is deemed pleasurable.

 

It is nothing to do with them how I choose to live my life. Why should I be forced to have a bottle of wine on the table with disgusting medico-porn plastered all over it? Just so they can have their little orgasms of self-righteous smugness?

 

Most things we do in life for pleasure carry a degree of risk, whether it be smoking, drinking, climbing mountains, jumping out of planes with a parachute, playing football, water skiing or whatever. We know the risks, and we calculate the cost / benefit equation, and we either do or don't indulge according to our personal desire. That is, or should be, our choice as free human beings. We don't need any tin-pot fascists from 'Public Health' issuing diktats as to what we can and cannot choose.

 

As Chris Snowdon from the IEA writes:

 

 

As with cigarette warnings, the intention is not to provide information (information which is, in any case, widely known) but to deter purchase. As with cigarette warnings, the aim is to demonise the product and stigmatise the user.

 

http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.gr/2014/08/hands-off-our-bottles.html

 

A pestilence on all their houses. They suck the life out of society and the joy out of life.

 

[techboy]

 

Wow! I know i had better buy all my booze now before they start to do this. Surely i will never touch acohol again if i have to see those pics and warnings.

Sent from my GT-S5310 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

They give a shít what you do - it's the next generation who counts. Growing up with these warnings will have some influence.
 

 
You think anyone over 18 needs warnings on labels to make a decision! Why not cover petrol stations with pictures of blood and guts. Why not have hardware stores showing repeated large screen TV videos of collapsing buildings blood, guts and brains all over the place. Why not have 7/11's postered with heart disease dying people. Why not enforce newspapers to have the full front page a picture of a desolate earth fried from tree loose. Why not have your refrigerator, airconditioner and TV all start up with a lecture on global warming and 15 minutes of graphic radiation poisoned people withering to death.  You give a shit, piss off. This is stupid bs.

Sir. Your position in this matter is quite clear!

[Thai at Heart]

Yeah yeah yeah. A sticker.

The simplest way to make it appear you are doing something without doing anything.

[hyperdimension]

I wonder how much longer we are going to put up with these interfering busybodies in 'Public Health'? It seems their sole raison d'être is to deny us of anything in life which is deemed pleasurable.

 

It is nothing to do with them how I choose to live my life. Why should I be forced to have a bottle of wine on the table with disgusting medico-porn plastered all over it? Just so they can have their little orgasms of self-righteous smugness?

 

Most things we do in life for pleasure carry a degree of risk, whether it be smoking, drinking, climbing mountains, jumping out of planes with a parachute, playing football, water skiing or whatever. We know the risks, and we calculate the cost / benefit equation, and we either do or don't indulge according to our personal desire. That is, or should be, our choice as free human beings. We don't need any tin-pot fascists from 'Public Health' issuing diktats as to what we can and cannot choose.

 

I agree and I would also apply this to the issue of drugs that still remain illegal, which ethanol once was for 13 years.
 

 

 

As Chris Snowdon from the IEA writes:

 

 

As with cigarette warnings, the intention is not to provide information (information which is, in any case, widely known) but to deter purchase. As with cigarette warnings, the aim is to demonise the product and stigmatise the user.

 

http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.gr/2014/08/hands-off-our-bottles.html

 

I support the idea of more information coming together with the product, but it seems that some authorities (particularly Thai) don't understand the difference between scare-mongering propaganda and factual evidence-based information (maybe because during their own upbringing propaganda was taught as fact, particularly in the teachings of Thai history, and students were not encouraged to question or criticize). labels that only consist of pictures of diseased organs or motorcycle accidents are just baseless scare-mongering propaganda if real statistics and tips to prevent such outcomes are not provided.
 

The mindset of the authorities should change from "don't do it" to "it's best not to do it, but if you do decide to do it, it's safer to do it like this". This should apply to all recreational drugs, both legal (e.g. ethanol) and illegal.