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U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a new advisory Friday warning Americans that alcohol consumption can increase their cancer risk, and called for an updated health warning label on alcoholic beverages.
“Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States – greater than the 13,500 alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities per year in the U.S. – yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk,” Murthy said in a statement.
Alcohol is the third-leading preventable cause of cancer in the U.S., the Surgeon General’s office said, after tobacco and obesity. It noted the link between alcohol consumption and cancer risk is well-established for at least seven types of cancer: breast, colorectum, esophagus, liver, mouth, throat and voice box. And the risk remains regardless of what type of alcohol is consumed, and increases with greater consumption.
Similar calls were made by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction two years ago, following the release of new alcohol consumption guidelines. Read more here.
Increasingly, evidence has mounted against alcohol consumption because of its health risks, negating a decades-long perception that some alcohol – especially red wine – could benefit health.
Still, nuances persist: A report in December from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that moderate drinking – two drinks a day or fewer for men and one for women – may be associated with lower risks of cardiovascular disease. It also found moderate drinking was associated with a higher risk of certain types of cancer.
For cancers like breast, mouth and throat cancers, the risk may start to develop with one or fewer drinks per day, the Surgeon General’s office said. It also noted any individual’s cancer risk is influenced by a number of factors, including their own biology and environment.
Younger adults in the U.S. have already started to view drinking as less healthy; an August Gallup poll found that almost half of Americans say that having one or two drinks a day is bad for a person’s health – the highest percentage recorded in the survey’s 23 years. Younger adults were most likely to say drinking is bad for health.
The Surgeon General’s advisory also calls for guideline limits for alcohol consumption to be assessed to account for cancer risk, and seeks to raise awareness for individuals about the link to cancer risk as they decide whether and how much to drink.
An updated warning label on alcoholic beverages to reflect cancer risk would require approval from Congress.
Murthy has also issued Surgeon General’s Advisories on topics including firearm violence, loneliness and isolation, social media and youth mental health and the mental health of parents.
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