Jan 26 2025 1 mins 5
Outgoing Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says alcohol packaged for consumption should bear a warning label about increased risk for cancer. Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson says that recommendation is based on an assumption.
Nelson: There is not a safe level of alcohol consumption. Some of the data does suggest that that's probably true, other data are not quite as convincing in that space. But I think his warning is that particularly for some diseases like breast cancer, where alcohol intake has been more correlated with breast cancer risk, that there may not be a safe level of alcohol consumption. And so he's suggesting that that would be a warning he would provide. I think that's going to be the new landscape for how do we further reduce cancer risk. :31
Nelson notes that when cigarette packaging was required to bear a warning about cancer smoking rates began a long decline, followed by reduced rates of lung cancer, and says that may be the strategy in the case of alcohol consumption as well. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
Nelson: There is not a safe level of alcohol consumption. Some of the data does suggest that that's probably true, other data are not quite as convincing in that space. But I think his warning is that particularly for some diseases like breast cancer, where alcohol intake has been more correlated with breast cancer risk, that there may not be a safe level of alcohol consumption. And so he's suggesting that that would be a warning he would provide. I think that's going to be the new landscape for how do we further reduce cancer risk. :31
Nelson notes that when cigarette packaging was required to bear a warning about cancer smoking rates began a long decline, followed by reduced rates of lung cancer, and says that may be the strategy in the case of alcohol consumption as well. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.
