Public awareness of link between alcohol and cancer ‘worryingly low’

Nine out of ten Britons do not associate drinking with cancer, according to research by Cancer UK

Source: The Guardian

Denis Campbell

1 April 2016

Only around one in 10 Britons knows that drinking too much can cause cancer, according to new research that has provoked calls for cans and bottles of alcohol to carry health warnings.

Health campaigners said the widespread ignorance of the link between alcohol and cancer was very worrying and called for public information campaigns to raise awareness of the danger.

The finding emerged from a survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,100 people conducted last July on behalf of Cancer Research UK (CRUK). When asked which health conditions they thought could result from drinking too much alcohol, just 13% of adults mentioned cancer.

Research shows that drinking is implicated in seven different forms of cancer, including liver, breast, bowel, mouth, throat, oesophageal and laryngeal cancer.

Four in five people (80%) did know that alcohol raises the risk of liver cancer but only 18% knew it heightened the risk of breast cancer. Drinking causes 400 cases of liver cancer a year and 3,200 cases of breast cancer, according to CRUK.

“It’s concerning that so few people know that alcohol increases the risk of seven types of cancer,” said Alison Cox, the charity’s director of cancer prevention.

Health experts hope the new official guidelines on safe drinking limits published in January, which reduced the amount men should consume to no more than the 14 units a week already recommended for women, will lead to a fall in consumption and less drink-related illness.

“If the new guidelines are to make a difference and change drinking habits in the UK, national health campaigns are needed to provide clear information about the health risks of drinking alcohol,” Cox added.

Sir Ian Gilmore, a liver specialist and chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA), said: “The lack of public awareness of the link between alcohol consumption and cancer is extremely concerning. It is not just heavy drinkers who are at risk. Any amount increases the risk.”

The AHA is urging ministers to put health warnings on the labels of all alcohol products and launch mass media information campaigns to alert the public to the health risks of alcohol intake.

Launching the planned new guidelines in January, Professor Dame Sally Davies, the government’s chief medical officer for England, caused controversy by warning that “drinking any level of alcohol regularly carries a health risk for anyone, but if men and women limit their intake to no more than 14 units a week it keeps the risk of illness like cancer and liver disease low.”

Sarah Toule, head of health information at the World Cancer Research Fund charity, said the widespread ignorance revealed by the survey was “very worrying considering drinking alcohol increases the risk of a number of cancers, including bowel, breast and liver”.

WCRF advice is that people should avoid drinking as much as possible because even minimal consumption increases cancer risk. “Around 24,000 cancer cases could be avoided every year if no one drank in the UK,” she added.

It urges drinkers to reduce their alcohol intake by, for example, ordering a bottle of beer instead of a pint, having a glass of water in between alcoholic drinks and having several drink-free days a week.

Dr Penny Buykx, a senior research fellow at Sheffield University and lead author of the report, said recognition of the link was “worryingly low . People link drinking and liver cancer but most still don’t realise that cancers including breast cancer, mouth and throat cancers and bowel cancers are also linked with alcohol, and that risks for some cancers go up even by drinking a small amount”.

Professor Kevin Fenton, Public Health England’s national director of health and wellbeing, said CRUK’s report “helps us better understand the public’s awareness of the links between alcohol and cancer. Alcohol-related problems continue to be widespread in England with 10.2 million adults drinking at levels that increase their risk of diseases.”