Putting a cancer warning on alcohol is overdue, doctors say
After the Surgeon General suggested that labels on alcoholic drinks should warn about cancer risk, here’s what doctors say you should know about drinking and cancer.
Doctors on Friday applauded a new report from the U.S. surgeon general that highlights links between alcohol consumption and seven types of cancer and suggests that alcoholic drinks should come with cancer warning labels.
The association between alcohol and cancer is well established, and many doctors have long called on the federal government to make the connection clearer to the public.
“For years, the AMA has said that alcohol consumption at any level, not just heavy alcohol use or addictive alcohol use, is a modifiable risk factor for cancer,” Bruce Scott, president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement. “And yet, despite decades of compelling evidence of this connection, too many in the public remain unaware of alcohol’s risk.”
In the new report, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy outlines the scientific evidence linking alcohol to cancer and offers recommendations to reduce rates of alcohol-related cancers. In addition to proposing warning labels on alcoholic drinks, Murthy suggests reassessing the recommended limits for alcohol consumption in the U.S.
Six in 10 U.S. adults report that they drink, but several doctors told NBC News that their patients generally aren’t aware that alcohol consumption can lead to cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, larynx, liver, breast and colon.
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