US surgeon general sounds alarm about link between alcohol and cancer

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory Friday warning Americans that alcohol consumption can increase their cancer risk and called for an updated health warning label on alcoholic beverages.

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory Friday warning Americans that alcohol consumption can increase their cancer risk and called for an updated health warning label on alcoholic beverages. Surgeon general’s advisories are strongly stated warnings meant to deliver clear messages about health risks. Advisories are uncommon and reserved for issues that need immediate awareness and action. They often become turning points in the nation’s health habits. A 1964 surgeon general’s report on smoking, for example, started to change the perception that cigarettes were benign. The new advisory may help do the same for drinking, which was once thought to be associated with some health benefits. The new report aims to dispel any notion that alcohol is harmless. “Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States – greater than the 13,500 alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities per year in the US – yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk,” Murthy said in a statement. Roughly 70% of Americans consume alcohol, according to Dr. Brian P. Lee, a liver specialist at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California who researches the health effects of alcohol, and many are confused about whether an occasional drink is good or bad for them. Only 45% of Americans surveyed by the American Institute for Cancer Research in 2019 said they believed that drinking alcohol causes cancer, the new advisory notes.