WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — Alcohol is one of the leading causes of cancer, a risk that should be clearly labeled on the beverages Americans drink, proposed Friday by the U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy.
Murthy’s guidance arrives as research and evidence continue to accumulate about the negative health effects of alcohol, but his labeling proposal would require a congressional approval that is rarely granted.
Americans should be better informed about the connection between alcohol and cancer, Murthy argues in his guidance, noting that alcohol use was responsible for nearly one million preventable cancer cases in the United States over the past decade. According to his guidance, about 20,000 people die each year from alcohol-related cancers.
Beer, wine and spirits bottles already carry warning labels stating that pregnant women should not drink and that alcohol consumption can impair a person’s ability to drive a car. But the label Murthy proposes would go further, increasing awareness of the cancer risk as well.
“It’s pretty crazy that there’s far more information on a can of peas than on a bottle of whiskey,” said Timothy Naimi, who directs the Canadian Institute for the Research of Substance Use at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. “Consumers have a right to basic information about health risks, serving sizes and beverages per container.”
Alcohol consumption raises the risk of developing at least seven types of cancers, including liver cancer, breast cancer and throat cancer, research has found.
“For individuals, keep in mind that cancer risk increases as you drink more,” Murthy wrote Friday on X. “When deciding whether to drink or how much to drink, remember that less is better when it comes to cancer risk.”
Pese a las recomendaciones, es poco probable que el Congreso promulgue rápidamente una nueva advertencia de salud sobre los productos de alcohol.
It has been almost four decades since Congress approved the first government warning label about alcohol, which states that pregnant women should not drink and warns about the dangers of driving while drinking. Since then there have been no updates.
Before that, Congress approved a label on cigarettes warning users that smoking is harmful to health.
Any effort to add a cancer warning to alcohol would face strong pushback from an industry that spends nearly $30 million each year lobbying Congress.
