“Following the ‘querelle’ on the need to insert suitable warnings in favor of consumers’ health on the labels of alcoholic beverages”, which is the subject of an event “organized at the Senate of the Republic aimed at promoting moderate drinking, we ask the organizers and participating politicians to remember that no amount of ethanol – a carcinogenic substance found in alcoholic beverages – is without risk”. Thus Gianni Testino, national president of the Italian Alcohol Society (SIA), in a note released on the conference ‘Mediterranean Drinking. The health effects of moderate wine consumption’, scheduled in Rome today, 16 February.
“This – specifies the president – is not the position of individual scientific studies, but of the scientific community, which is based on over 92,000 scientific works. Citing only a few is not ethical, as it means manipulating science for other ends, such as for example it has already happened for vaccines. Furthermore – adds Testino – a sentence of the European Court of Justice (Third Section – 6 September 2012) has already defined that the consumption of alcohol cannot be associated with health. This must be respected, especially by health professionals “.
In this regard, Testino, on behalf of the scientific society he presides over, asks, “for the sake of public health, to point out that: ethanol is a carcinogen; it has a very low margin of exposure, therefore very harmful to health in the and one cannot and must not associate alcohol consumption with well-being. Let them be certain – he concludes – that the illustrious speakers will support positions that are now scientifically proven and that fall within an adequate ethical perimeter to make citizens consumers”.
