Alcohol labels should warn of cancer risk, urge health groups

Alcoholic beverages should have labels that explicitly declare the link between alcohol consumption and cancer, An alliance of doctors, charitable organizations and public experts urged.

The labels are vital to fight against a historical lack of conscience Among the British that alcohol consumption is proven to cause seven forms of cancerAs well as 17,000 cases of illness per year, they say.

The campaign to have warnings placed on alcoholic beverages is being headed by the Global cancer research fund (WCRF), who wrote a letter to Sir Keir Starmer.

They demanded that “daring and unambiguous” labels be placed on all drinks containing alcoholWhile also asking for a minimum price of alcohol of 65p per unit in England.

“The evidence is clear: the labeling of health on alcoholic beverages is urgent in the United Kingdom to help save lives,” he said. “They should transport strong and clear messages on health risks, which include the risk of cancer, far beyond the vague advice as” consuming in moderation “.”

Kate Oldridge-Turner, head of WCRF’s public policy and public affairs, said: “Providing alcohol alert labels would allow millions of people to make informed choices by clearly understanding the risks.”

Dr. Helen Croker, deputy director of research and policies at WCRF, suggested that “beer bottles show less information than orange juice bottles”, suggesting that England must have a national alcohol strategy. He has not had a plan in place since 2012.

From next May, Ireland will become the first country in the world to include cancer warning labels on alcoholic beverages. They will have to warn consumers of a “direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers”.

Earlier this year, the European Office of the World Health Organization published calls for these labels to become commonplace, publishing a report entitled: “Alcohol health labels: a public health prospect for Europe”.

Presentation of the report, the regional director of WHO, Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, said that “clear and important health alert labels on alcohol, which include a specific cancer warning, are a cornerstone of the right to health”.

The organization added in the report that decision -makers should “resist all the pressure that will inevitably come from commercial actors” which suggest that the warning labels will not work.

The spokesperson for the alcohol industry have since expressed their opposition to the warning labels, saying that they can create “unnecessary anxiety”.

A spokesperson for the Portman group, a body funded by the industry that oversees alcohol in the United Kingdom, said The guardian: “Although we do not dispute the link between alcohol and certain cancers, and alcohol consumption at harmful levels is dangerous and increases the risks, the alert alert labels are not a proportional policy measure and do not put the risks in an appropriate context.

“It can create unnecessary anxiety, eroding confidence in health advice and alienating the same people who need support.”

They have added that most drinks already include the advice of medical chiefs in the United Kingdom so as not to drink more than 14 alcohol units per week.