Alcohol labels often omit health risks: Study

Alcohol companies are more than twice as likely to tell consumers to "drink responsibly" than to warn them about health risks, with current voluntary alcohol warnings largely hidden, uninformative and ineffective, an Australian study has found.

The study analyzed more than 6,000 alcohol labels across three major Australian retailers, examining the type and placement of voluntary health warnings and messages, according to a statement released Wednesday by the Public Health Association of Australia.

It found only 25 percent of products carried a voluntary health warning, with 99 percent of those advising specific groups, including minors, pregnant women and drivers, not to drink.

The findings, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, showed that 65 percent of products carried responsible consumption messages without providing information about health harms, such as alcohol's links to at least seven types of cancer and liver disease.

Health warnings or messages were almost always hidden from view on the back or bottom of packages, according to the study led by Australia's George Institute for Global Health.

Lead author Asad Yusoff from the George Institute said current lax alcohol labeling rules allowed alcohol companies to "feign corporate responsibility while keeping consumers in the dark about the real health harms of drinking."

The findings come after an Australian parliamentary committee last week recommended mandatory regulation of alcohol advertising and marketing.