An association promoting wine tourism in Tuscany has asked to raise the level above which drivers will be found guilty of operating under the influence of intoxicating substances.
A limit of 0.5% of alcohol in the blood went into effect earlier this month in the aftermath of a sharp increase in fatal, alcohol-related road accidents.
According to a report in the WineNews website, the president of the Wine Roads in Tuscany association, Mauro Marroncini. has written to Agriculture Minister Paolo De Castro asking that the limit be raised to 0.8%.
"We understand the need to take action. However, to consider 'drunk' someone who has consumed two 125ml glasses of wine, equal to a quarter of a liter, is excessive".
"Anyone who consumes a full meal, with a first serving of pasta or soup, a meal dish with vegetables and fruit for dessert can easily consume two glasses of wine".
Marroncini's position is the exact opposite of those advocating 'zero tolerance', however, these there are those in favor of this and the 0.5% limit who consider wine an exception.
In an interview published this month by the Turin daily La Stampa, Giorgio Calabrese, chairman of the agriculture ministry's commission on nutrition and food, said he was against warning labels on wine.
The proposal from health Minister Livia Turco, he observed, "is wrong because it considers wine to be alcohol. Wine is a food product which contains alcohol. Its average alcoholic content runs between 11% and 15% and so it cannot be considered a spirit".
"Scientific evidence has also shown that moderate consumption of wine with meals can be beneficial to one's health," he added.
According to the nutrition expert, who is also deputy chairman of the national scientific council on food and nutrition, "at a full meal a man can consume one and a half to two glasses of wine while a woman can drink one glass to a glass and a half".
"While I agree that the acceptable limit should be 0.5%, the problem is not wine or beer: the problem is abuse," Calabrese concluded.
