Businesses should be required to place the sign in a prominent spot to make it visible to the public. Vendors can choose to place signs in additional locations, such as in rest rooms or on restaurant tables. Even enforcement is inexpensive. In Florida, food inspectors monitor the signs on their regular rounds at no extra cost to the taxpayer. Some activists contend that restaurant, bar, and tavern owners may post the signs voluntarily as protection from liability to consumers whose drinks are served by the glass, without the government warning label that is affixed to alcoholic-beverage containers.
Warning signs do have a substantial indirect impact on heavy drinkers.
Family members who have learned from warning signs that drinking can harm the fetus can help motivate the problem drinker to seek treatment. In addition, alcohol-related birth defects can occur in the offspring of moderate drinkers, who may also be affected by warning signs. Researchers have not established any safe time to drink during pregnancy. One study shows that heavy drinkers who stopped drinking during the middle of the second trimester significantly improved their pregnancy outcomes. This allegation presumes that ignorance is better than truth and is unsupported by anything more than anecdotal information.