Antigonish craft brewery testing health warning labels on beer cans

Most people are familiar with the warning labels on cigarette packages. But a project in Antigonish, N.S., is piloting how similar labels could work for alcoholic beverages.

In hopes of increasing awareness of the health risks associated with alcohol consumption, a researcher at St. Francis Xavier University has teamed up with a local craft brewery to test warning labels on beer cans.

Kara Thompson, research chair in substance use policy and prevention at St. FX, is leading the labelling project in collaboration with Candid Brewing Company in Antigonish.

"This is the last stage of the project where we're actually implementing them in a real-world setting and seeing how consumers, whether consumers notice them, how they understand them and how they use them when they're purchasing and consuming alcohol," Thompson told Information Morning Nova Scotia host Portia Clark.

The labels, rolling out on select Candid products over the next several months, inform consumers of the number of standard drinks per container and alcohol's connection to cancer.

They also include information on Canada's new national guidance on alcohol and health, which says three to six drinks a week increases the risk of developing certain cancers, including colorectal and breast cancer, and more than seven drinks a week also increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Bryan Druhan, co-owner of Candid Brewing, said he was intrigued to be part of a project breaking new ground in Nova Scotia.

"It's an interesting first step," he told Information Morning Nova Scotia. "It's nice to be out ahead of it. It's certainly happened in other jurisdictions, so having a chance to be in collaboration and have some input was, I think, valuable so we were happy to jump at the opportunity."

Druhan said he views the labels as being important to help consumers make informed decisions.

"I think, you know, consumers are smart," he said. "They make choices every day, whether it's about alcohol or other products they are buying. So we just looked at it as an opportunity to give our consumers more information."

The pilot will monitor the reaction of consumers who were initially recruited and surveyed as part of data collection prior to the launch of the labels, Thompson said.

"The labels will launch for the next four months or so and then we'll follow up with those same people to assess things like has their knowledge of the link between alcohol and cancer changed, is their understanding of a standard drink better, have they noticed the label and talked about the label with peers."

Thompson said information in Nova Scotia about the health risks of alcohol is sorely lacking. 

"We haven't done a very good job in this province about communicating anything about alcohol and alcohol-related risks," she said.