WASHINGTON (AP) — Alcohol is a leading cause of cancer, a risk that should be clearly labeled on drinks Americans consume, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy proposed on Friday.
Murthy's advisory comes as research and evidence mounts about the bad effects that alcohol has on human health, but his proposal for a label would require a rare approval from the U.S. Congress.
Americans should be better informed about the link between alcohol and cancer, in particular, Murthy argues in his advisory, noting alcohol consumption is to blame for nearly one million preventable cancer cases in the U.S. over the last decade. About 20,000 people die every year from those alcohol-related cancer cases, according to his advisory.
Bottles of beer, wine and liquor already carry warning labels that say pregnant women should not drink and that alcohol consumption can impair someone's ability to drive a car. But Murthy's proposed label would go even further, raising awareness about the risk for cancer, too.
“It’s pretty crazy that there’s a lot more information on a can of peas than on a bottle of whiskey,” said Dr. Timothy Naimi, who directs the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. “Consumers have the right to basic information about health risks, serving size and drinks per container.”
Consuming alcohol raises the risk of developing at least seven types of cancer diseases, including liver, breast and throat cancer, research has found. His advisory also notes that as a person's alcohol consumption goes up, so does the risk for developing those illnesses.
“For individuals, be aware that cancer risk increases as you drink more alcohol,” Murthy wrote Friday on the social media platform X. “As you consider whether or how much to drink, keep in mind that less is better when it comes to cancer risk.”
Even with the Surgeon General's advisory and new research that shows the dangers of drinking, it's unlikely Congress would act swiftly to enact a new Surgeon General's warning on alcohol products.
It's been nearly four decades since Congress approved the first government warning label on alcohol, the one that says pregnant women shouldn't drink and warns about the dangers of driving while drinking. No updates have been made since then.
Before that, Congress approved a label on cigarettes cautioning users that smoking is hazardous to health, a move that is credited with helping America substantially reduce its bad habit.
Any effort to add a cancer warning label to alcohol would face significant push back from a well-funded and powerful beverage industry, which spends nearly $30 million every year lobbying Congress.
Other research around alcohol, including reports that moderate drinking can be associated with lower risks to of heart disease compared to no alcohol consumption, should be considered, said Amanda Berger of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
“Many lifestyle choices carry potential risks, and it is the federal government’s role to determine any proposed changes to the warning statements based on the entire body of scientific research,” Berger said in a statement.
The surgeon general’s advisory comes as the government is in the process of updating dietary guidelines, including those around alcohol, that will form the cornerstone of federal food programs and policy. The updated guidelines are expected later this year.
The current guidelines recommend women have one drink or fewer per day while men should stick to two or fewer.
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Associated Press writer Carla K. Johnson contributed.
FILE - Bottles of alcohol sit on shelves at a bar in Houston, June 23, 2020. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
FILE - Jim Beam, Knob Creek and other alcohol bottles are pictured at a bar in Eagle, Colo., Dec. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
FILE - Surgeon General Vivek Murthy speaks during a panel discussion, Oct. 10, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Costas Simitis, former prime minister of Greece and the architect of the country’s joining the common European currency, the euro, has died at age 88, state TV ERT reported.
Simitis was taken to a hospital in the city of Corinth early Sunday morning from his holiday home west of Athens, unconscious and without a pulse, the hospital’s director was quoted as saying by Greek media. An autopsy will be performed to determine the cause of death.
Simitis, a co-founder of the Socialist PASOK party in 1974, eventually became the successor to the party’s founding leader, Andreas Papandreou, with whom he had an often contentious relationship that shaped the party’s nature. Simitis was a low-key pragmatist where Papandreou was a charismatic, fiery populist. He was also a committed pro-European, while Papandreou banked on strong opposition to Greece’s joining what was then the European Economic Community in the 1970s, before changing tack once he became prime minister.
When the profligate first four years of socialist rule, from 1981 to 1985, resulted in a rapidly deteriorating economy, Papandreou elevated Simitis to be finance minister and oversee a tight austerity program. Finances improved, inflation was partly tamed, but Simitis was pushed to resign in 1987 when Papandreou, eyeing an upcoming election, announced a generous wages policy, undermining the goals of the austerity program.
The socialists returned to power in 1993, but Papandreou was ailing, and he finally resigned the premiership in January 1996. A tight two rounds of voting among the socialist lawmakers unexpectedly elevated Simitis to the post of prime minister.
Simitis considered Greece’s entry into the eurozone, in January 2001, as the signature achievement of his premiership. But he also helped secure the 2004 Olympic Games for Athens and presided over a vast program of infrastructure building, including a brand new airport and two subway lines, to help host the games. He also helped Cyprus join the European Union in 2004.
His critics on the right and left did their best to denigrate his legacy, highlighting a dubious debt swap concluded after the country had joined the eurozone as an attempt to massage the debt numbers.
In the end, it was determined opposition from his own party, including trade union leaders, to pension reform in 2001 that fatally weakened Simitis’ administration. He decided to resign his party post and not contest the 2004 election, five months before the Olympics, rather than face certain defeat to the conservatives.
George Papandreou, son of the socialist party’s founder, succeeded him as party leader, and in 2008 expelled Simitis from the PASOK parliamentary group after the two men clashed over policies, including Papandreou’s proposal to hold a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon. Simitis left parliament in 2009, but not before issuing a prescient warning that financial mismanagement would bring the country under the tutelage of the International Monetary Fund, which would impose harsh austerity. In the end, it was the IMF, jointly with the EU, that imposed a harsh regime on a bankrupt country in 2010.
Costas Simitis was born on June 23, 1936, the younger son of two politically active parents. His lawyer father Georgios was a member of the left-leaning resistance “government” during the German occupation and his mother, Fani, was an active feminist.
Simitis studied law at the University of Marburg, in Germany, in the 1950s, and economics and politics at the London School of Economics in the early 1960s. He later taught law at the University of Athens. His elder brother Spiros, who died in 2023, was a noted legal scholar in Germany, specializing in data protection.
Simitis is survived by his wife of 60 years, Daphne, and two daughters.
FILE - Greece's Prime Minister Costas Simitis declares a razor-thin victory over conservative opponents following general elections, in Athens on Monday, April 10, 2000. Costas Simitis, a Prime Minister of Greece from 1996 to 2004 and the architect of the country's joining the common European currency, the euro, has died at 88, state TV ERT reports.(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)
FILE - Greece's Prime Minister Costas Simitis declares a razor-thin victory over conservative opponents following general elections, in Athens on Monday, April 10, 2000. Costas Simitis, a Prime Minister of Greece from 1996 to 2004 and the architect of the country's joining the common European currency, the euro, has died at 88, state TV ERT reports. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)
