US Surgeon General Warns Alcohol May Be Linked to at Least 7 Types of Cancer, Urges Government Action

The Surgeon General revealed findings potentially linking alcohol to a minimum of seven types of cancer and is urging Congress to take action. (Photo by: Soeren Stache/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

The New York Times reported on Friday that the U.S. Surgeon General revealed findings through an advisory from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services claiming that alcohol is linked to at least seven types of cancer and is urging Congress to pass laws requiring alcohol companies to update their labels warning consumers of these risks.

“Alcohol consumption is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States, after tobacco and obesity,” the study read.

The advisory revealed that alcohol use leads to almost 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 cancer deaths every year. It reported that alcohol use was linked to breast cancer, colorectal cancer, liver cancer, mouth cancer, throat cancer, voice box cancer and esophageal cancer.

The findings reported that even with just one drink per day, the risk of cancer increases, and it cited a study where rats and mice were given water with ethanol — the principal component in alcoholic beverages.

Scientists found that the “metabolic breakdown product” acetaldehyde led to increased tumors in rodents, further supporting these claims.

Unsurprisingly, the study reported that cancer risk lowers with decreased alcohol consumption.

“In the U.S., there are about 20,000 alcohol-related cancer deaths annually,” the study read. “This is greater than the number of alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities (about 13,500 annually) in the U.S. Alcohol-related cancer deaths shorten the lives of those who die by an average of 15 years.”

The Times reported that Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. surgeon general, urged Congress to mandate updated labels citing a correlation between alcohol use and cancer.

“Many people out there assume that as long as they’re drinking at the limit or below the limits of current guidelines of one a day for women and two for men, that there is no risk to their health or well-being,” Dr. Murthy expressed, according to The Times. “The data does not bear that out for cancer risk.”

Whether or not Congress will move forward on issuing some sort of warning to consumers remains in question.

The Times reported that previous pressure from lobbyists working in the liquor industry led the Canadian Government to end a study on the impact of warning labels that touched on alcohol’s link to cancer.

How The Surgeon General’s Warning Points to Potential Shifting Perceptions About Alcohol Consumption

It is not surprising that the Surgeon General’s latest findings about alcohol consumption have been met with considerable pushback, ever since the World Health Organization’s study in 2022 reported that no amount of alcohol consumption was considered “safe.”

In October, over 100 Congress members signed a letter urging the U.S. Government to end a study on the ongoing health risks associated with alcohol use. Congress expressed concerns that the scientists performing the study were biased, and considered “anti-alcohol activists.”

According to the letter, members of Congress claimed that the scientists chosen for the study were not “appropriately vetted for conflicts of interests,” and the process of the study was “secretive.”

Yet bias in alcohol studies is nothing new — on both sides.

Officials in the United Kingdom were pressed to keep the liquor industry “at arm’s length” while the government was revising guidelines for liquor consumption in August.

“Over 10,000 people a year in the UK die due to alcohol-related causes,” Alcohol Health Alliance Chair Professor Sir Ian Gilmore said, according to The Guardian. “Yet the industry that profits from these products is given a say in how they are regulated, priced, marketed and made available. The fox should not be in charge of the henhouse.”