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Well|How Much Alcohol Does It Take to Raise Your Cancer Risk?
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/well/alcohol-cancer-risk.html
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The surgeon general cautioned the public on Friday that even light or moderate drinking is harmful.
Jan. 3, 2025, 5:49 p.m. ET
The surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service warned on Friday that even light or moderate alcohol consumption can increase a person’s risk of cancer.
In a new report, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, said that alcohol use had been directly linked with at least seven types of cancers, including those of the mouth, throat, larynx, esophagus, breast, liver and colon and rectum. Globally, 741,300 cancer cases were attributable to alcohol consumption in 2020.
But public awareness of the link is low: Only 45 percent of Americans believe alcohol has a significant effect on whether someone develops cancer, according to a 2019 national survey by the American Institute for Cancer Research.
Research has shown that the more alcohol a person drinks — particularly the more a person consumes regularly, over time — the greater the risk of cancer. The association is true for all types of alcohol: beer, wine and spirits.
But even what we think of as “light” or “moderate” drinking — up to one drink per day — increases the risk of some cancers, like those of the mouth, pharynx and breast.
“There is no safe level of alcohol when it comes to cancer risk,” said Dr. Ernest Hawk, the vice president and head of the division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
