Saying the Alcoholic Beverage Labeling Act of 1988 requires Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau to “in consultation with the Surgeon General” to update the government health statement if “available scientific information would justify a change in, addition to, or deletion of the statement,” four public health groups called for the label to include a warning of the risk of cancer from drinking alcohol beverages.
“The available scientific information shows that consuming ‘even one drink per day’ of alcohol increases cancer risk,” American Institute for Cancer Research, American Public Health Association, Breast Cancer Action and Center for Science in the Public Interest said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. TTB is an agency of the Treasury Department.
The groups asked the government warning message be amended to include, “According to the Surgeon General, consumption of alcoholic beverages can cause cancer, including breast and colon cancers.” Other elements currently required should continue to be required, they said.
They also said the required warnings should rotate rather than continue to be a solid mass. “Research on tobacco and other warning labels shows” rotating messages “more effectively capture consumer attention.” They also called for the warning to be “more prominent and conspicuous. In doing so, TTB would increase consumer awareness and bring alcohol labeling into greater consistency with other hazardous products like tobacco.”
The groups cited a telephone survey of 1,004 U.S. adults that found just 39% of respondents knew that alcohol increases cancer risk. Several other studies indicate most U.S. consumers do not associate alcohol consumption with increased cancer risk.
The risk of cancer from excessive bev/al consumption has been known for decades, however the industry while acknowledging that risk has noted that other studies show moderate alcohol consumption reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, and since cardiovascular diseases exceed deaths from cancers, the overall death risk is less.
The letter cites a recent Surgeon General’s report that finds that “even on drink per day may increase the risk of breast cancer and that higher levels of alcohol consumption are associated with cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus, larynx, pharynx, liver, colon and rectum.”
The letter attempts to knock down the benefits of moderate drinking, citing the Surgeon General’s report. Researchers have estimated that for every 10 grams of ethanol consumed per day, that is a 5% increase in premenopausal breast cancer risk and a 10% risk increase for postmenopausal women.
“Recent research suggests that at least some of the benefits attributed to moderate drinking may be overblown,” the letter says, citing a CDC report that says “recent studies show this may not be true.”
“In contrast to this uncertainty,” the letter says, “scientific evidence linking alcohol consumption to cancer is well-established and growing. A cancer warning label would better equip consumers to judge for themselves whether these risk outweigh cancer’s purported health benefits.”