RESOLUTION OENO 73/2000

USE VERSUS ABUSE OF WINE: PUBLIC POLICY

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

BASED ON THE PROPOSAL of the "Social Aspects of Wine Consumption" expert group and the "Nutrition and Health" sub-commission,

AFTER validating the Educational Program on Wine and Society concerning education on the proper manner to consume wine and preventing alcohol abuse,

CONSIDERING regularly published reports in major scientific journals which suggest that moderate wine consumption has benefits for human health, which were also the subject of resolutions drafted by the "Nutrition and Wine" expert group, and the considerable attention paid by the media to this subject,

CONSIDERING that benefits to human health may be obtained from regular and moderate wine consumption, preferably during the course of meals, contrary to abusive consumption or consumption leading to drunkenness,

CONSIDERING that wine can be healthily integrated with social, family and festive occasions as well as in other circumstances, when it is consumed in a reasonable and moderate way,

RECOMMENDS that member States, if they choose to publicly highlight the potential benefits to human health of regular and moderate wine consumption, accompany and balance any such statement with caveats highlighting the adverse effects and harms of excessive alcohol consumption to the individual and to the community.