Alcohol should come with a warning label indicating it is a leading cause of preventable cancer, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said in a new report Friday.
“Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States — greater than the 13,500 alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities per year in the U.S. — yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk,” Murthy said in a press release announcing the new 22-page report.
Nearly three-quarters of all U.S. adults, 72%, reported that they consumed one or more alcoholic drinks per week, but fewer than half reported that they were aware of the documented relationship between alcohol consumption and cancer risk.
Seven different types of cancer, including breast cancer and colon cancer, have now been linked by medical studies to alcohol consumption.
The most effective way to spread awareness of the carcinogenic properties of alcohol, Murthy suggested, is to update the health risk label on units of alcohol, similar to those for tobacco products. However, this would require an act of Congress.
Republicans have long been outspoken critics of tightening recommendations on alcohol consumption, which will likely make any form of legislation on alcohol warnings the center of heated partisan debate in 2025.
Alcohol and cancer risk
Murthy said in an interview with the New York Times ahead of the report’s release that people assume consuming alcohol below the daily limits of one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men is safe.
“The data does not bear that out for cancer risk,” Murthy said.
The risk of certain cancers, including breast, mouth, and throat cancers, may start to increase with just one drink per day, according to the new report.
Women drinking less than one drink per week have a 16.5% risk of developing alcohol-related cancer, compared to 22% for women who drink 14 or more drinks per week. That equates to five more women out of 100 developing cancer due to alcohol consumption.
The risk is slightly lower for men, who have a 10% cancer risk at less than one drink per week but a 13% risk for 14 or more drinks per week or two per day.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, classifies alcohol in the same carcinogen group as tobacco, asbestos, and formaldehyde, and this determination is agreed upon by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute, according to Murthy’s report.
One of the primary reasons alcohol consumption increases cancer risk is because alcohol breaks down into acetaldehyde, a chemical that is known to cause DNA damage that increases cancer risk.
Breast cancer is strongly associated with alcohol risk, likely because alcohol alters the level of multiple natural hormones, including estrogen.
Murthy said 1 in every 6 breast cancer cases is attributable to alcohol consumption. Recent studies have also connected moderate alcohol consumption to certain forms of heart disease.
According to the report, about 20,000 people in the United States die of alcohol-related cancer annually, almost 7,000 more deaths than alcohol-related traffic fatalities each year.
Globally, the report estimates that 741,300 cancer cases were associated with alcohol consumption in 2020, nearly a quarter of which were related to consuming fewer than two drinks per day.
Alcohol, dietary guidelines, and the GOP
Murthy’s recommendation for cancer risk warning labels on alcohol products comes amid a fierce battle between federal health agencies and Congress over the influential U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which is slated to be published this year.
The dietary guidelines, published jointly by the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, are nonbinding recommendations but have significant influence over federal and state nutrition policy.
The scientific report that shaped the 2020-2025 dietary guidelines acknowledged alcohol as a carcinogen and capped the recommendation for men at 14 grams of alcohol per day. However, the final draft of the guidelines did not change the recommendation of drinking no more than 28 grams of alcohol per day for men.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, including committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), have been pressing the departments since April 2024 regarding updated guidelines on alcohol.
Comer, a strong advocate of the Kentucky bourbon industry, stressed in a letter to current HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra in September that opacity in the conduct of HHS-funded studies on alcohol consumption “may intend to undermine” Congress’s intention of impartially examining the health effects of alcohol.
Murthy and his policy goals as surgeon general have been sharply criticized by Republican figures as drifting into social activism, with eight of his office’s 12 current policy goals being related to mental health and another calling firearm violence a public health threat.
In November, Murthy also issued an anti-tobacco report calling tobacco-related illness “a social injustice,” emphasizing the racial disparities in tobacco product use and disease.
There have been other clashes between the GOP and the Biden administration over alcohol-related matters in recent years as well.
Last summer, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) issued a sharp reaction against the possibility of changing federal recommendations on alcohol limits by saying the Biden administration could “kiss [his] a**” if they chose to prohibit alcohol consumption to only two beers per week.”
That prohibition was not actually suggested by the Biden administration but became a misconception among Republicans following an exchange between Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in which Jean-Pierre declined to comment. A clip of the moment went viral online, drawing criticism from Republicans, including Cruz.
Future of alcohol warning labels and public awareness
Whether the incoming Trump administration will support Murthy’s recommendation for adding a cancer-specific warning to alcohol remains to be seen.
Current warning labels on alcohol were enacted by Congress in 1988 to warn consumers about the risks of alcohol consumption to a developing fetus as well as driving. The current label also says, “Excessive consumption of this product is harmful to consumer health.”
President-elect Donald Trump does not drink, partly because his older brother, Fred Trump Jr., died as a result of alcoholism at the age of 42 in 1981. The president-elect’s nominee for HHS secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also no longer drinks after 14 years of addiction to heroin and other drugs.
Adding a cancer-specific warning label is also in line with the Trump-Kennedy Make America Healthy Again agenda, which revolves around removing toxins from the American diet and improving health from a holistic lifestyle perspective.
Kennedy will likely be asked about alcohol recommendations, among other nutrition topics, during his two Senate confirmation hearings, which will be scheduled for early this year.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Even if enhanced warning labels are not passed by Congress, Murthy called for public health professionals and organizations to bolster public education efforts on the link between alcohol and cancer.
The advisory specifically highlighted the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Rethinking Drinking initiative, which offers interactive tools for patients to evaluate their alcohol consumption.
