A good example of stupid regulation

Radio NZ reports:

David Seymour says changes to warning labels for tobacco, nicotine and alcohol products are on the table in a labelling review by his Ministry for Regulation.

Public health groups have written to Seymour, asking for nicotine, tobacco and alcohol to be excluded from the review, but when asked by RNZ, the Deputy Prime Minister said: “No, I have no plans to do that.”

Seymour said warnings about nicotine being addictive, tobacco causing cancer, or alcohol harming pregnancies were unlikely to be removed altogether, but changing the nature of those labels was still an option.

He gave the example of the requirement to use the colour red in labels warning about the danger of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).

“I think the real problem here is people (being) so irresponsible, they drink when pregnant and do massive harm to unborn children,” Seymour said. “That, in my view, is the real problem here.

“The problem is not the colour of the label.”

Seymour said he visited a craft beer business struggling with the requirement to use red in pregnancy warning labels.

“They use two-colour printing, but they can’t get the third colour, unless they go to three-colour printing, which increases their costs,” he said. “They made the quite reasonable point – you could still have a very effective ‘don’t drink when pregnant’ warning, without putting that cost on them.”

A great example. Mandating red ink for the label imposes a significant cost on some businesses, yet has a zero impact on public health.