Alcoholic drinks should carry a label warning consumers about their cancer risks, the US Surgeon General said in an advisory today.
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s office noted that consuming alcohol increases the risk for “at least seven types of cancer” including breast, colon and liver.
“Alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, after tobacco and obesity, increasing risk for at least seven types of cancer,” Murthy’s office said in a statement accompanying the new report.
It is responsible for 100,000 US cancer cases and 20,000 cancer deaths each year, more than the 13,500 alcohol-associated traffic crash deaths, it added.
“The direct link between alcohol consumption and cancer risk is well-established for at least seven types of cancer including cancers of the breast, colorectum, esophagus, liver, mouth (oral cavity), throat (pharynx), and voice box (larynx), regardless of the type of alcohol (e.g., beer, wine, and spirits) that is consumed,” the report said.
“For breast cancer specifically, 16.4% of total breast cancer cases are attributable to alcohol consumption.”
The report also called for the guidelines on alcohol consumption limits to be reassessed so that people can weigh the cancer risk when deciding whether or how much to drink, alongside current warnings on birth defects and impairments when operating machinery.
It further advised public health professional, health care providers and community groups to highlight alcohol as a leading preventable cause of cancer and expand education on the subject.
In September, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) reported that 5% of all cancer cases are caused by drinking alcohol.
They also found that 51% of Americans are not aware that alcohol increases cancer risk.
“It’s been flying under the radar for far too long — especially given the number of Americans who have met the criteria for alcohol use disorder, which is around 29 million Americans in 2023,” addiction psychiatrist Dr. Adam Scioli of Caron Treatment Centers in Pennsylvania, who is not affiliated with AACR, told Fox News at the time.
Meanwhile, a 12-year study published in August that tracked 135,000 adults 60 and older found that even light drinking was associated with an increase in cancer deaths. This uptick was most pronounced in older adults who live in low-income areas and have health troubles.
“We did not find evidence of a beneficial association between low drinking and [overall] mortality,” L=lead study author Rosario Ortolá, an assistant professor of preventive medicine and public health at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, told the New York Times.
And in 2023, Oxford University researchers published even more troubling research that showed that any amount of alcohol can increase the risk of developing at least one of more than 60 diseases, including more than 30 illnesses not previously linked to alcohol.
Those included liver disease, diabetes, gastric ulcers and gout.
