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Labels on liquor bottles warning pregnant women not to touch alcohol may be required in New Zealand by 2009 - 20 years after such warnings became compulsory in the United States.
The transtasman regulatory agency Food Standards Australia New Zealand said yesterday that it planned to publish a discussion document on compulsory labelling this month.
The Alcohol Advisory Council applied to the agency for the labels in February last year.
In the US, the proportion of pregnant women drinking has dropped from 21 per cent to 12 per cent since warning labels became mandatory there in 1989, the founder of the University of Washington fetal alcohol syndrome legal issues resource centre, Kathryn Kelly, told a conference in Wellington last week. But in this country a 2002 survey of women at 24 weeks into their pregnancies found that a quarter had drunk alcohol in the previous week.
Another study in 2005-06 found that only 40 per cent of women believed they should abstain from drinking during pregnancy. Half of the women said one drink or less was safe to be consumed on a typical drinking occasion in pregnancy.
The Ministry of Health tightened its guidelines last year and now recommends abstinence by pregnant women, and those planning to get pregnant, because of the risk of fetal alcohol syndrome.
Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council recommends no drinking during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
