Alcoholic beverage labels should contain warnings about the risk of cancer. This statement was made by the US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. This was reported by Reuters, according to UNN.
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It is noted that this step may mean a transition to stricter regulation of the sector, similar to the regulation of the tobacco industry.
Murthy's report says that alcohol consumption increases the risk of at least seven types of cancer, including breast, colon, and liver cancer, but most consumers in the United States are unaware of this. The chief medical officer called for a review of alcohol consumption limits so that people can weigh the risk of cancer when deciding whether and how much to drink.
In the United States, alcohol consumption is the third leading cause of preventable cancer, after tobacco use and obesity,
Alcohol is associated with 100,000 cases of cancer in the United States and 20,000 cancer deaths annually, which is more than the 13,500 deaths in alcohol-related traffic accidents, the report said.
After the report was published, shares of alcohol producers fell by an average of 3%.
The publication notes that the recommendations of the US Surgeon General do not mean that alcohol companies are already obliged to label labels in a new way. This decision must be approved by Congress.
But it was a similar report in 1964, which concluded that tobacco smoking posed a cancer risk, that started the process of introducing stricter tobacco regulations. A year after the publication of that report, the US passed a law on cigarette label warnings.