US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, the country’s leading voice on public health matters, has called for warning labels following new research linking alcoholic beverages to at least seven types of cancer, reports the BBC.
The advisory highlights that many people (55 percent of Americans) are unaware that alcohol consumption increases cancer risk, leading to around 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 deaths in the US annually alone. Murthy also called for reassessing recommended limits for alcohol consumption and increasing education efforts. Alcohol, Murthy said, is the third most common preventable cause of cancer after tobacco and obesity, with a well-established causal link with increased risk of mouth, throat, oesophagus, larynx, liver and colon cancer, as well as breast cancer in women.
Currently, warning labels on alcohol in the US are required to state that pregnant women should not drink due to risk of birth defects and that “consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car and operate machinery, and may cause health problems.” Any changes would require an act by Congress.
[See more: Planning to limit the booze this holiday season? Here are five pointers]
Recent years have seen a rise in countries introducing warning labels to inform consumers of the health risks of alcohol. A 2018 report from the World Health Organization (WHO), cited by Murthy, showed 47 member states mandated health and safety warnings on alcohol at that time – an increase of nearly 52 percent over 2014. Of the 47, only South Korea required cancer warnings, and this December saw the country considering whether to update the warnings to emphasise that any amount of consumption carries risk.
The growing evidence that there is no safe amount of alcohol has prompted many countries to revise their recommended limits. Canada shifted from nearly two drinks per day to two per week last year, while the UK suggests no more than six drinks per week (the equivalent of 14 “units”). The US, meanwhile, currently offers a substantially higher recommendation at no more than two drinks per day for men and one for women – or 14 a week for men and seven a week for women.
Predictably, some of the biggest opponents to new labelling schemes are alcoholic beverage producers. Share prices for US-listed producers – including the world’s largest spirits manufacturer, Diageo – fell as much as 4 percent following Murthy’s advisory. When Ireland passed its new labelling requirements in 2023, praised by the health minister as the first “comprehensive health labelling of alcohol products,” it had already drawn fire from the Italian ambassador who called the labels “totally disproportionate.” Italian wine exports totalled 8 billion euros that year.
