WASHINGTON/LONDON: Alcoholic beverages must carry warnings about cancer risks on their labels, the US surgeon general said Friday, in a move that could signal a shift toward more aggressive tobacco-style regulation for the sector. .
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said alcohol consumption increases the risk of at least seven types of cancer, including breast, colon and liver cancer, but most American consumers are unaware of it.
Murthy also called for guidelines on alcohol consumption limits so that people can assess cancer risk when deciding how much to drink.
The U.S. Dietary Guidelines currently recommend two or fewer drinks per day for men and one or fewer drinks per day for women.
“After tobacco and obesity, alcohol consumption is the third leading cause of cancer in the United States,” Murthy’s office said in a statement accompanying the new report. There is a reason, regardless of the type of alcohol consumption.
His advisory sent shares of alcohol companies including Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Heineken up more than 3% in some cases.
The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), which represents the makers of premium spirits, pointed to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that found moderate alcohol consumption by a Also associated with a lower rate of death from the cause. As well as a higher risk of breast cancer.
“Existing health warnings on alcohol products have long alerted consumers to the potential dangers of alcohol consumption,” Amanda Berger, the group’s vice president for science, said in a statement, adding that someone Also, alcohol should not be consumed for its health benefits.
A spokeswoman said the American Beer Institute promotes responsible consumption of alcohol.
It is unclear when or if the Surgeon General’s recommendations will be accepted. US President Joe Biden’s administration is coming to an end. Murthy could be replaced by Janet Nishivat, director of a chain of New York urgent care clinics and President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for the role.
Trump, whose brother died of alcoholism and who does not drink alcohol himself, has long warned about the dangers of alcohol.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, has been open about his past struggles with heroin and alcohol, and says he attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Congress will ultimately decide whether to update the labels.
Small print
Murthy’s advisory points to early US surgeon general action on tobacco, beginning with a 1964 report that concluded smoking can cause cancer. The report began decades of increasingly stringent regulation, beginning with US laws on warning labels a year later and continuing today.
There are already warnings on the packaging of alcoholic beverages in the US, including that drinking alcohol during pregnancy can cause birth defects and impair judgment while operating machinery. These appear in small print on the back of the packaging. The label has not changed since its inception in 1988.
Murthy’s recommendations call for updating existing labels instead of new cigarette-style warnings that are prominently displayed on each pack.
However, analysts say that cigarette warning labels have done little to deter smoking and that changing the ingrained habits is difficult.
“Warning labels won’t be an immediate death blow to brewers, but they will raise long-term risks for the industry,” said eMarketer analyst Blake Drosh.
In the US, one of the biggest markets for many Western producers, wine sales are falling after the pandemic. Revenues are further threatened by rising revenue. Longer-term, companies face competition from alternatives like cannabis and the threat of lower consumption as some consumers, especially young people, drink less in some markets than previous generations.
However, beer makers have benefited from the shift towards healthier lifestyles, with low- or no-alcohol products growing rapidly. For example, Heineken’s 0.0 version posted double-digit growth in 16 markets last year.
‘Save Lives’
Public health organizations such as the World Health Organization are also turning their attention to alcohol after making progress on stronger tobacco control.
The WHO says there is no safe level of drinking and that even small amounts of alcohol can harm health – a position that has fueled debate about the effects of moderate drinking and its role in society. has given birth to
The Mayo Clinic says the health risk for moderate doses is low and increases with the amount consumed. The Surgeon General’s report states that heavy consumption increases the risks and that drinking two drinks a day can result in cancer in 5 out of 100 women and three more in 100 men.
The current U.S. dietary guidelines run until 2025, and companies including Diageo and Heineken have lobbied officials ahead of the change, lobbying records show, amid concerns that the U.S. is violating WHO language about safe consumption. can adopt
Other countries’ guidelines already include such language, while nations such as Ireland have already moved to introduce warning labels.
Some scientists in a 2017 study accused the industry of misleading people about the cancer risks of drinking alcohol. DISCUS said the researchers had anti-alcohol biases and their study was selective.
The Surgeon General’s advisory states that alcohol is responsible for 100,000 US cancer cases and 20,000 cancer deaths and more than 13,500 alcohol-related traffic accident deaths each year.