‘Alcohol safety’ has become a polarizing issue both on social media and among heath professionals. Now America’s ultimate food safety authority, the Surgeon General, has issued a warning on alcohol and cancer risk…
We’ve been hearing a lot about the safety – even the claimed benefits – of drinking alco0hol. But in spite of all the recent positive scientific and media coverage of alcohol, the US Surgeon General has issued a stern advisory about the links between booze and cancer…
A detailed rundown
The advisory, “describes the scientific evidence for the causal link between alcohol consumption and increased risk for at least seven different types of cancer, including breast (in women), colorectum, esophagus, voice box, liver, mouth, and throat. The Advisory also helps to better inform the public of this relationship and offers key recommendations to reduce alcohol-related cancers.”
The succinct 21-page document ‘s overarching message is, “Alcohol Consumption is a Leading Pre-ventable Cause of Cancer.” And it provides detailed descriptions plus sometimes-shockingly explicit infographics illustrating how alcohol enables cancer.
The essentials…
“Alcohol use is very common — in 2019-2020, 72 percent of U.S. adults reported they consumed one or more drinks per week,” the report asserts. “[B]ut less than half of U.S. adults are aware of the rela-tionship between alcohol consumption and cancer risk.”
On the other hand… “For certain cancers, like breast, mouth, and throat cancers, evidence shows that this risk may start to increase around one or fewer drinks per day”
The danger of alcohol consumption, the advisory laments, is not receiving the attention it deserves from the public compared to other major health risks: “In a 2019 survey, 45 percent of Americans recognized alcohol use as a risk factor for cancer compared to 91 percent of Americans who recog-nized the risk of radiation exposure, 89 percent for tobacco use, 81 percent for asbestos exposure, and 53 percent for obesity.”
“Additionally, public awareness of alcohol consumption as a cancer risk factor has not substantially improved over nearly two decades, even as evidence documenting the link between alcohol con-sumption and cancer risk has increased.”
What to do?
The Surgeon General pulls no punches in the advisory’s conclusion.
He wants existing alcoholic beverage health warning labels updated to carry specific warnings about the link between alcohol and cancer risk. Other countries – notably Ireland – have already done so.
Recommendations include stepped-up efforts to reduce the alarming deficit in public awareness about alcohol’s role in cancer risk.
And he wants regulators to, “reassess recommended limits for alcohol consumption to account for the latest evidence on alcohol consumption and cancer risk.”
My take
The Surgeon General’s new edict on the links between alcohol and cancer is certain to generate a lot of discussion – even debate – among the clinical and commercial ‘interested parties’. Not to mention the millions of consumers who’ve been hearing lately that ‘moderate drinking can be good for you’.
On the positive side, it appears that younger folks especially are veering away from alcohol in favour of no-alcohol or low-alcohol recreational beverages. Though it appears that’s a matter of preference, rather than a reaction to any warnings about links to health risks…
~ Maggie J.