| Comment Number: | 526363-00040 |
| Received: | 11/12/2006 1:59:03 AM |
| Organization: | FAS Family Information Network |
| Commenter: | Peggy Oba |
| State: | MO |
| Agency: | Federal Trade Commission |
| Rule: | Alcohol Reports |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
The alcohol industry has used its money to insure that it will be protected by government and private industries. It markets to younger people and simultaneously supports universities so that the study of alcoholism and alcohol related illnesses are not on the educational agenda for fear of losing educational monies. It also uses these universities to produce studies that show how "healthy" it is to drink when these same alcojhol producers know that drinking can easily lead to addiction. My own father never drank until he was older and only when it was recommended by his physician. He died of alcohol-related throat cancer in 1998. The alcohol industry caters their products to minorities in the hope that these minorities will develop addictions. They do not provide warning labels about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or other alcohol-related problems on their products going overseas. In many cases, because it it legal, they increase the percent of alcohol contain in overseas products. I have two nieces and a nephew with full Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Anheuser Busch sells a beer with 20% more alcohol in Japan where my nieces and nephew live. When I called to complain, the spokesperson said, "It is legal to sell it." I told him it was morally reprehensible. He replied, "It is legal." The alcohol industry peppers their holiday sales with contributions and yet has failed to donate one cent to the care of teens and adults who suffer from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, an incurable result of prenatal alcohol use that often results in an inability to make a living or to live independently. And the money the alcohol industry does spend on charities is only a fraction of the damage they do in causing alcohol-related cancers, addictions and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which can cost the families and government over $3 million dollars in a lifetime. The advertising pushed out by these companies are meant to be either slick, sentimental, entertaining and/or award-winners but they do not win points with families who have had to suffer from drunk-driving...my first husband died in a drunk driving accident that almost took the lives of a family of four....or suffered from a loss due to cancer induced alcohol drinking ..or raising children who will never be an asset to the society in which they live. The alcohol industry also insists on dissiminating false information on the lethal does of absolute alcohol in its products by insisting that beer has less alcohol than wine or hard liquor. They freely advertise beer at family/teen events, magazines and radio while downplaying the true alcoholic content of their products. Wine coolers are treated as a "soda-wanna-be"...designed so as not to appear so "alcoholic" when it contains the same amount of alcohol as a half glass of hard liquor. The alcohol industry is going out of its way to package its products in ways that appear innoculous to younger teens...such as alcopops and more fruit and sweet drinks for women. This blatant advertising, packaging, product development and failure to use warning labels must be reined under control before the entire nation is addicted to alcohol and suffering the physical and mental consequences of an addiction that is clearly out of control. From *The Broken Cord* by Michael Dorris...quoting Dr. Philip May of the University of New Mexico...."It is is entirely conceivable that we could have entire civilizations with lower intelligence." Please do not allow the alcohol industry do this to us and our posterity. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in Japan: http://hometown.aol.com/psoba/myhomepage/family.html University of Washington Fetal Alcohol and Drug Unit http://depts.washington.edu/fadu FASLink (an international listserv for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome): http://www.faslink.org