Interpretations of risk: the use of scientific information in the development of the alcohol warning label policy

Abstract

In 1988 the US Congress passed a law requiring a health warning label on alcoholic beverage containers, to include the message that pregnant women should not drink alcohol. This paper addresses the role that scientific knowledge played in the formation and passage of the alcohol warning label policy. The constellation of birth defects implicated in the fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) (including fetal alcohol effects) is sketched, and the FAS-related legislative events leading to the law's passage are described. A synopsis of the state of knowledge in 1988 regarding the effects of alcohol on the fetus is presented, and a snapshot of the social climate at that time is offered. The paper concludes with an update of relevant FAS research since the legislation was passed, and considers implications for future research and policy in the prevention of FAS.