Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I strongly welcome amendments Nos. 15 to 19, inclusive, and amendment No. 24, tabled by Senator Nash. I am very happy to support them. They have the same purpose as my amendments, Nos. 16 and 18, which is to inform the public of the direct link between alcohol and cancer. I think the wording is a bit stronger so when it comes to voting, I will be looking to withdraw my amendments and urging everyone to get behind those from Senator Nash. Politics is good when we work together across party lines. This is something we can all get behind.

During the past year, it has been really shocking and disheartening to see the intense lobbying and misinformation that has been spread regarding this Bill. This is especially true when it comes to cancer. Like the tobacco lobby in the 1960s and 1970s, the link between alcohol and cancer, an empirical medical fact, has been regularly denied. I could barely believe it when I watched one of the most senior and vocal lobbyists against this Bill on our national broadcaster just a few weeks ago flat out denying the link between alcohol and cancer. This is shameful behaviour and we have to call it out.

The link between alcohol and cancer is clear. I thank Mr. Donal Buggy and the Irish Cancer Society for their research and hard work on this. They have shown that, every year, 900 new cases of cancer and 500 cancer deaths are attributable to alcohol. At a global level, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified alcohol as a group 1 carcinogen alongside tobacco. Lobbyists, however, try to deny this in the name of profit. Alcohol consumption can cause cancer of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, liver, bowel and breast. The impact on womenis particularly important and is too often forgotten. Every one standard drink a woman drinks a day brings a 7% increase in breast cancer. A woman drinking between three and six standard drinks a day increases the risk by 41%. This means that in 2013, for example, 12% of breast cancers were caused by alcohol. That amounts to 353 cases a year. That year, 69 women died in Ireland from breast cancer caused by alcohol. The statistics show that 40% of cancers are preventable, and prevention is the key to the national cancer strategy. A modest cancer warning would help prevent such needless deaths.

Sadly, the level of public awareness remains shockingly low. Research in the UK has found that almost 90% of people in England do not associate drinking alcohol with an increased risk of cancer. The Healthy Ireland survey from 2016 showed that only 27% of women, and 16% of young women, are aware of the increased risk of breast cancer from drinking. We need to ensure that people have the facts and can make informed choices. I often hear critics of this Bill talk about the need for education and I agree with them on that. We certainly need better information both at the point of purchase and the point of consumption. Research from the World Health Organization, WHO, has shown that health warnings like the one we are proposing can achieve this. It is no great demand and I urge colleagues to support Senator Nash's amendments.

Some have also claimed that this may contravene EU trade rules but again this is untrue. Many EU countries, including France and Germany, already have various health warnings. The purpose of amendment No. 20is to ensure the inclusion of evidence-based health warnings on a minimum of one third of the printed material. Mandatory health warnings on product labels are a cost-effective way of countering positive and unproblematic depictions of alcohol use. As is the case with cancer, we are aware of the strong link between alcohol consumption and more than 200 health conditions. Despite this, the perception of risk is still low. I am glad that the Bill will introduce health warnings to change this position in this regard but these warnings must be substantial in size and in clarity. They will not be effective if they are small and unnoticeable. As such, we are proposing that this warning should comprise at least one third of the product label.

Amendment No. 21deals with data collection on alcohol-related presentations at health facilities. We discussed this point earlier so I will not speak about it at length here.