Doctors Call for Children to be Protected from Alcohol Advertising

As the Scottish Parliament gets ready to debate our relationship with alcohol there are calls for adverts to be banned before the watershed.

Doctor's association BMA Scotland is supporting plans to ban adverts at sports and entertainment events.

Chair of BMA Scotland Dr Peter Bennie said: "The alcohol industry's sponsorship of entertainment or sporting events can see children become walking billboards for alcohol products, exposing them to alcohol brands while they are at an impressionable age.

"It should not be acceptable for the alcohol industry to sponsor and brand events that are aimed at under-18s and MSPs should use this opportunity to take on alcohol advertising."

The association is also backing proposals in the Alcohol (Licensing, Public Health and Criminal Justice)(Scotland) Bill to reduce how much airtime is given to booze adverts.

Each year the alcohol industry spends £800 million on promotion across Britain, money that BMA Scotland believes wouldn't be spent if the industry didn't see it as an effective way to increase sales and consumption.

The Doctor's association is also backing the introduction of alcohol education in schools, starting at primary school level.

With more than a million people in Scotland drinking hazardously or harmfully, BMA Scotland is getting behind Holyrood proposals to change Scotland's attitude to alcohol. Dr Bennie says this needs the cooperation of MSPs:

"As the Scottish Parliament prepares to debate the progress that has been made on changing Scotland's relationship with alcohol, we would encourage MSPs to use this opportunity to focus again on the comprehensive alcohol strategy that Scotland needs."