The United States’ top health official, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, has urged for mandatory health warnings on alcoholic drinks to highlight their link to cancer, emphasizing the need to reassess daily consumption limits due to health risks.
In a statement released on Friday, Murthy highlighted that alcohol is a known, preventable cause of cancer, responsible for around 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 cancer-related deaths each year in the US.
He stressed that this toll far surpasses the approximately 13,500 alcohol-related traffic fatalities annually.
Despite this, he noted, most Americans remain unaware of the cancer risks linked to alcohol.
“Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer,” Murthy said. “Yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk.”
He called for updated warning labels on alcoholic beverages, urging Congress to modernize the existing warnings, which have not been changed since 1988.
Current labels only caution against drinking during pregnancy and warn of impaired driving, while other countries, such as South Korea and Ireland, have updated their labels to reflect the cancer risks associated with alcohol.
Alcohol consumption increases the risk of at least seven types of cancer, including breast, colorectal, liver, and mouth cancers, with breast cancer alone accounting for 16.4 percent of all alcohol-related cases.
A 2019 survey revealed that only 45 percent of Americans recognized alcohol as a cancer risk factor, compared to higher awareness levels for other known carcinogens.
The advisory also questioned the sufficiency of the current US dietary guidelines, which allow up to two drinks per day for men and one for women.
Shockingly, 17 percent of alcohol-related cancer deaths occur among individuals who stay within these recommended limits.
Murthy emphasized the crucial role health care providers play in educating patients about alcohol’s cancer risks and offering interventions and support when needed.
