Surgeon general calls for new label on drinks to warn Americans of alcohol’s cancer risk
WASHINGTON — Alcohol is a leading cause of cancer, a risk that should be clearly labeled on drinks Americans consume, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy proposed Friday.
Murthy‘s advisory comes as research and evidence mounts about the bad effects that alcohol has on human health, but his proposal for a label would require a rare approval from the U.S. Congress.
Americans should be better informed about the link between alcohol and cancer, in particular, Murthy argues in his advisory, noting alcohol consumption is to blame for nearly 1 million preventable cancer cases in the U.S. over the last decade. About 20,000 people die every year from those alcohol-related cancer cases, according to his advisory.
Bottles of beer, wine and liquor already carry warning labels about the risk of birth defects when a pregnant woman consumes alcohol. But Murthy’s proposed label would go even further, raising awareness about the risk for cancer, too.
The U.S. surgeon general is declaring gun violence a public health crisis, driven by a growing number of injuries and deaths involving firearms in the country.
Consuming alcohol raises the risk of developing at least seven types of cancer diseases, including liver, breast and throat cancer, research has found. His advisory also notes that as a person’s alcohol consumption goes up, so does the risk for developing those illnesses.
“For individuals, be aware that cancer risk increases as you drink more alcohol,” Murthy wrote Friday on the social media platform X. “As you consider whether or how much to drink, keep in mind that less is better when it comes to cancer risk.”
Even with the surgeon general’s advisory and new research that shows the dangers of drinking, it’s unlikely Congress would act swiftly to enact a new surgeon general’s warning on alcohol products.
It’s been nearly four decades since Congress approved the first government warning label on alcohol, the one that says pregnant women shouldn’t drink and warns about the dangers of driving while drinking. No updates have been made since then.
Before that, Congress approved a label on cigarettes cautioning users that smoking is hazardous to health, a move that is credited with helping America substantially reduce its bad habit.
Any effort to add a cancer warning label to alcohol would face significant pushback from a well-funded and powerful beverage industry, which spends nearly $30 million every year lobbying Congress.
Just weeks ago, the federal government passed on altering the existing dietary guidelines around alcohol. The current guidelines recommend women have one drink or fewer per day while men stick with two or fewer.
Seitz writes for the Associated Press.
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