Alcohol is a leading cause of cancer, a risk that should be clearly labelled on drinks Americans consume, US surgeon general Vivek Murthy has proposed.
Mr 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 US Congress.
Americans should be better informed about the link between alcohol and cancer, in particular, Mr Murthy argues in his advisory, noting alcohol consumption is to blame for nearly one million preventable cancer cases in the US 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 that say pregnant women should not drink and that alcohol consumption can impair someone’s ability to drive a car.
But Mr Murthy’s proposed label would go even further, raising awareness about the risk for cancer, too.
“It’s pretty crazy that there’s a lot more information on a can of peas than on a bottle of whiskey,” said Dr Timothy Naimi, who directs the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.
“Consumers have the right to basic information about health risks, serving size and drinks per container.”
Consuming alcohol raises the risk of developing at least seven types of cancer diseases, including liver, breast and throat cancer, research has found.
NEW: Today, I’m releasing a Surgeon General’s Advisory on the causal link between alcohol consumption and increased cancer risk. Alcohol is the 3rd leading preventable cause of cancer in the U.S., contributing to about 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 cancer deaths each year. pic.twitter.com/sKTlPAZlFw
— Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General (@Surgeon_General) January 3, 2025
The surgeon general’s 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,” Mr Murthy wrote 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 is unlikely Congress would act swiftly to enact a new surgeon general’s warning on alcohol products.
It has been nearly four decades since Congress approved the first government warning label on alcohol, the one that says pregnant women should not 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 dollars (£24 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 should stick to two or fewer.
