Labels on wine-tobacco dangers: an anomalous level playing field

The green light from Brussels to the Irish legislation which in fact, in terms of labelling, equates wine to cigarettes, so that wine, beer and spirits can be marked with indications such as "alcohol causes liver disease" or "alcohol and tumors are directly connected” is a dangerous precedent that heralds serious consequences for the Italian wine market which represents one of the flagships of Made in Italy exports. The Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida did not mince words in commenting on the opinion of the EU Commission: "The decision of the EU Commission to allow Ireland to label all alcohol, including wine, with alerts on health risks - he said - it is very serious and we believe that behind this choice the aim is once again not to guarantee health but to condition the markets because the push came from countries where wine is not produced and where spirits are abused”.

An urgent question to the EU Commission on the labeling of alcohol desired by Ireland was requested by MEPs Paolo De Castro, Camilla Laureti and Achille Variati. “We cannot continue to tolerate the indifference shown so far by the Commission regarding a law that is not only wrong – underline the three Dem MEPs – but which also represents a trade barrier at an international level. This is why we ask for urgent action to ensure that Ireland complies with the agreement on technical barriers to trade, envisaged by the World Trade Organisation". “We hope that the commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, responsible for health and food safety, will soon retrace her steps, after ignoring the position approved by a very large majority by the EU Parliament which, in the resolution on the fight against cancer last February, categorically excluded the introduction of sanitary labeling systems for alcoholic beverages.

2 – 1 – 0: the numbers of the essential condition to minimize the effects

So let's try to clarify things: affixing cautionary messages cannot have the same meaning if applied to a pack of cigarettes or a bottle of wine or grappa. It is a "level playing field" not supported by scientific studies, and it cannot even be invoked as a simple protection of the national wine heritage. The science of Italian Nutrition has already expressed itself on the matter in 2018, in unsuspecting times, through the elaboration of the Guidelines for a Healthy Diet by the CREA-NUT. The guidelines do not hide the deleterious effects of alcohol on human health, but indicate an essential condition for minimizing the possible effects, using three simple numbers: 2 - 1 - 0.

The adoption of the three numbers is in any case subject to consumption during meals since alcohol is absorbed directly by the stomach lining and not in the intestine like all the other nutrients.

An alcoholic unit is equal to 12 g of alcohol, but in order to correctly transform this value into a quantity of wine it is necessary to carry out a conversion, which takes into account the density of the alcohol equal to 0,79 g/ml.

One alcohol unit is equal to 79 ml of a good wine with an alcohol content of 12%, i.e. half of a meal glass. A woman will be able to take half a glass of wine per day, as opposed to a man who will be able to take twice as much. The difference between the intake of men and women is simply due to the lower weight of the liver in the female sex, which also determines a slower disposal.

INRAN guidelines: Men and women react differently after fasting

In the guidelines drawn up by INRAN in 2003, the table showing the concentration of alcohol in the blood after fasting was published. It is possible to observe that if a man and a woman take 1 UA, after one hour an alcohol concentration of 0.13 g/l can be detected in the man's blood, but in women the value is almost double (0.23).

Indicative blood alcohol values ​​(grams of alcohol per liter of blood) as a function of the quantity of alcohol ingested (expressed in Alcohol Units) and the time elapsed since ingestion (under fasting conditions).
In yellow the values ​​that exceed the rates permitted by law for driving