Your Alcohol Bottles May Look Different Soon — And It Might Make You Drink Less

A few weeks ago, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy announced that he’s calling for alcohol bottles in the U.S. to carry a label that warns consumers about alcohol’s effect on cancer risk.

The labels are not yet a done deal and require approval from Congress (which is expected to be an uphill battle), but there is no doubt that research shows alcohol consumption does increase cancer risk. The International Agency for Research on Cancer even categorizes alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen, the highest risk classification for a cancer-causing substance.

Though there is a lot of evidence about the link between alcohol consumption and cancer, it’s not common knowledge among those who drink, which is something the warning labels could help with.

“I find, typically, that when I’m working with patients or research participants for my studies, people kind of know, ‘I shouldn’t be drinking during pregnancy,’ ‘I shouldn’t drink and drive’ or ‘I know there’s impacts on the liver,’ but beyond that, I don’t find that the general public has a very good recognition of the other ill impacts that alcohol use can have,” said Emily Hartwell, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

This includes negative effects on digestive health, mental health and the immune system along with the cancer risk, Hartwell added.

“There are approximately 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 cancer deaths each year which are being attributed to alcohol playing a role,” said Dr. Manmeet Singh Ahluwalia, the chief of medical oncology at Baptist Health Miami Cancer Institute.

In a 2019-2020 survey conducted by the American Institute for Cancer Research, just 45% of respondents were aware of the link between alcohol and cancer, compared with 90% who were aware of the connection between smoking and cancer, according to Ahluwalia.

Experts say it’s clear that raising awareness about the alcohol-cancer relationship is crucial. Here’s why:

Cancer warning labels on alcohol bottles can help raise awareness of alcohol’s effect on cancer risk.

“It’s our duty to inform people — awareness is the key,” Ahluwalia said.

Just how much awareness will affect drinking behavior is impossible to predict, but Ahluwalia said a Canadian study found that when warning labels went on Canadian alcohol bottles, there was a 10% increase in people’s awareness of the association between alcohol and cancer in two months.

There’s other strong evidence that warning labels work. When the World Health Organization developed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which resulted in warning labels being placed on tobacco products in countries throughout the world, smoking rates declined, Hartwell added.

“While it’s hard to say these really impacted smoking rates, what we can really say is that these were clearly effective at the public health messaging and really raising awareness,” Hartwell said. “And what we can see, at least in our own country, is that smoking rates have gone down over the last few decades precipitously. They’re holding steady over the last few years, but it’s tremendously down from where it was even 20-30 years ago.”

The more alcohol you drink, the higher your cancer risk.

“There does seem to be a dose-response relationship between alcohol and cancers, meaning that the more you’re drinking — more frequently, more heavily — does seem to put you at higher risk for developing cancer,” Hartwell said.

If you can start cutting back on how much you drink and how often, you’ll also lower your chances of alcohol-related cancer. This is particularly important for people with a family history, environmental exposure or a history of heavy drinking, Hartwell noted.

“For example, if you consume one drink per day, you have a 10% increased [relative] risk of getting breast cancer, and if you consume [more than] two drinks a day, then you have a 30% increased relative risk … of getting a breast cancer” when compared with those who don’t drink alcohol, Ahluwalia explained.

There are established ways that alcohol causes cancer.

Alcohol breaks down into a chemical called acetaldehyde, which can cause cancer by binding to and damaging DNA, Ahluwalia said. Alcohol also generates “something that is known as oxidative stress, and this, again, damages DNA, it damages protein, and it really causes a bad kind of inflammation, and that can actually lead to cancer.”

Research about alcohol’s cancer-causing properties is ongoing, but it’s clear there are ways in which it makes people sick.

This is scary news, but there are things you can do to take control of your health.

In a society where alcohol consumption is normalized and even encouraged, all of this can be a lot to take in.

Particularly, drinking alcohol is most associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, mouth and throat cancer, colon cancer, esophageal cancer and liver cancer, according to Hartwell.

“If you have a family history or you have some sort of known risk factors, particularly for those types of cancers, this is something you should take more seriously and perhaps talk to your doctor about, because this is one area where you can lower your risk for developing those particular types of cancers,” Hartwell said.

Talking to your health care provider can help you determine your risk, and examine just how much you’re drinking and what all of this data means for you and your personal health history.

You certainly aren’t alone if you’ve spent decades sipping multiple glasses of wine each week or enjoying a few beers on game day. Alcohol is everywhere, at parties, work events, sports matches and even quiet nights on the couch.

But all hope is not lost if you’ve been a heavy drinker. You can make changes now that help set you up for success in the years to come.

“There is some evidence that if people stop drinking, that over a period of time their risk of getting cancer goes down,” Ahluwalia said. “It doesn’t go down to zero, but adopting healthy choices in life, like having a well-balanced diet, incorporating exercise, all those things help you live longer and [have] a better quality of life.”

Decreasing your alcohol intake is part of that equation for a long and healthy life.

Hartwell takes solace in the fact that people are taking their alcohol use more seriously and “that there’s a recognition of this growing body of evidence that alcohol use, even at low levels, can have harmful impacts on individuals.”

“So, I was glad to see that there is a recognition at the highest level and that our country is hopefully starting to have a little bit of a reckoning with our relationship with alcohol use, so that folks can just be better informed about how they want to live their lives and what those risks are,” Hartwell said.

Need help with substance use disorder or mental health issues? In the U.S., call 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.