‘Long overdue:’ Surgeon General, Seattle doctor call for new label to warn of alcohol’s cancer risk

Alcohol is a leading cause of cancer, a risk that should be clearly labeled on drinks Americans consume, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy proposed on Friday.

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 U.S. Congress.

Americans should be better informed about the link between alcohol and cancer, in particular, Murthy argues in his advisory, noting alcohol consumption is to blame for nearly one million preventable cancer cases in the U.S. over the last decade. About 20,000 people die every year from those alcohol-related cancer cases, according to his advisory.

The surgeon general’s advisory comes as the government is in the process of updating dietary guidelines, including those around alcohol, that will form the cornerstone of federal food programs and policy. The updated guidelines are expected later this year.

The current guidelines recommend women have one drink or fewer per day while men should stick to two or fewer.

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Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center professor: ‘There’s no completely safe level’

Dr. Anne McTiernan, a professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, worked on some of the studies referenced by the surgeon general, including one from the World Cancer Research Fund.

“The idea is that there’s no known safe level (of alcohol consumption), but it’s clear that higher intake increases risk to a greater degree,” she said.

McTiernan said she supports the push to put cancer warnings on labels, calling it “long overdue.”

“The important thing about doing something like that is to get the message out to people – that alcohol use does increase risk for several cancers,” she said.  “A lot of people don’t know this.”

When asked about previous guidance that moderate drinking was not harmful to health – and some assertions that, in fact, it was linked to healthier individuals – McTiernan said new data tell a different story.

“It’s really looking like it’s not the case – that there’s no completely safe level,” she said. “There used to be some thought that cardiovascular disease was lower in people that kept their alcohol drinking to a very small amount, like one glass of wine a day, but that may be just because the people who choose to do that also have other healthy habits.”

Now, she said, new studies show the link to cancer is beyond coincidence.

“We know what the biology is telling us,” she said, adding that alcohol increases the risk of damage to our own DNA.

“If you have DNA damage and you don’t have enough repair of that, then you can increase risk of cancer,” McTiernan said.

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 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.”

Producer for “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio Laura Scott said she has noticed a trend of people wanting to cut down on alcohol.

“I’ve definitely noticed a trend among people my age of, ‘Let’s drink less, It’s not healthy,'” she said. “There’s a limit to it, but, wanting to go, not sober, but, close to sober.”

Alcohol raises risk for at least 7 types of cancer

Consuming alcohol raises the risk of developing at least seven types of cancer diseases, including liver, breast and throat cancer, research has found. His 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,” Murthy wrote Friday 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’s unlikely Congress would act swiftly to enact a new Surgeon General’s warning on alcohol products.

It’s been nearly four decades since Congress approved the first government warning label on alcohol, the one that says pregnant women shouldn’t 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.

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Other research around alcohol, including reports that moderate drinking can be associated with lower risks of heart disease compared to no alcohol consumption, should be considered, said Amanda Berger of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

“Many lifestyle choices carry potential risks, and it is the federal government’s role to determine any proposed changes to the warning statements based on the entire body of scientific research,” Berger said in a statement.

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 every year lobbying Congress.

Contributing: The Associated Press; Sam Campbell, KIRO Newsradio; Julia Dallas, MyNorthwest