Australia

Drinkers need to be told about the risk of cancer from alcohol

By RJ Whitehead

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Alcoholic beverage

Drinkers need to be told about the risk of cancer from alcohol
Curtin University researchers are now recommending the adoption of cancer warning labels for alcoholic beverages after a study they conducted found that Australians would take not be averse to seeing such advisories on their wine, beer and spirits bottles.

Professor Simone Pettigrew, from Curtin’s School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, said there is growing evidence that alcohol contributes to the risk of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, liver disease, foetal abnormalities, cognitive impairment and mental health problems.

Lacking awareness

While a number of countries have already introduced warnings on labels, most refer to the dangers of drinking while pregnant or drink driving, rather than the more widespread negative effects of alcohol consumption.

Many people are not aware of the alcohol-cancer link so we developed a series of cancer warning statements for alcohol and tested them for their believability, ability to convince, and perceived relevance across a national sample of more than 2,000 drinkers​,” Prof. Pettigrew said.

Encouragingly, even heavy drinkers reportedly found the messages to be believable and were more likely than lighter drinkers to consider the messages personally relevant​.”

The statement “Alcohol increases your risk ofbowel cancer​”was most effective in getting people to consider their drinking habits before buying a bottle.

Following the success of warning labels on tobacco products, we are encouraged by the increased support for similar warnings to be placed on alcoholic beverages​,” Prof. Pettigrew added.

Token demonstration

Alcohol harm costs Australia A$30bn (US$27.8bn) annually and despite the demonstrated links between alcohol consumption and ill health, alcohol continues to be heavily advertised.

Even worse, ads sponsored by Australia’s alcohol industry, such as DrinkWise’s ad showing young people how to drink ‘properly’, do little to inform. They serve only as a token demonstration of balancing the A$125m-plus a year spent on indirect and direct advertising of alcohol​,” Prof. Pettigrew added in a follow-up paper posted on The Conversation​ academic website.

One Australian government survey found that around 90% of men and 81% of women believed that they can drink alcohol every day without it affecting their health.

As warning labels on alcoholic beverages are now mandatory in a growing number of countries, the researchers say they hope this project will help guide government policy on mandatory warnings.

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3 comments

Placement

Posted by Ian Dee,

I doubt a warning label on a bottle would reduce consumption as much as a warning sign at point of sale.
The research seems to be about believability of a statement. They seem to assume that people will read it on their own volition

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Bring out the cotton wool!

Posted by Matt,

I bet the researchers telling these stories drive to work emitting cancer causing benzenes out their exhaust pipes!

It seems to me, the 'wrap society in cotton wool' brigade have found another lame excuse to remove fun from everyday life.

Believe it or not - everyone dies at some stage - so how about talking about the 101 benefits having the odd glass of wine gives you!

Good health - cheers

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Positive Proof

Posted by Robert,

I for one would like to see undisputed proof that alcohol causes cancer, and it isn't something else in beer, wine, and spirits that causes cancer. If people knew how large producers actually made beer, wine, and spirits they would not drink their swill. I for one believe that it's actually an ingredient in beer, wine, or spirit that causes cancer and not alcohol. There is a thing called moderation.

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