The risks and harms linked to alcohol consumption have been thoroughly assessed and are well-documented.
Recently, the World Health Organization published a statement in The Lancet Public Health, asserting that no level of alcohol consumption is entirely safe for health.
It is the alcohol that causes harm, not the beverage
Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive substance that can lead to dependence and has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
This classification, which includes substances like asbestos, radiation, and tobacco, indicates the highest level of risk.
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Alcohol is linked to at least seven types of cancer, including common forms such as bowel cancer and female breast cancer.
Ethanol, the active component in alcoholic beverages, contributes to cancer development through various biological mechanisms.
This risk exists regardless of the price or quality of the alcoholic beverage.
The risk of developing cancer increases with higher alcohol consumption. However, recent data show that a significant proportion of alcohol-related cancers in the WHO European Region are associated with “light” and “moderate” drinking—defined as less than 1.5 liters of wine, 3.5 liters of beer, or 450 milliliters of spirits per week.
This consumption pattern is responsible for most alcohol-related breast cancers in women, with the greatest impact observed in European Union countries.
In the EU, cancer is the leading cause of death, with alcohol-related cancers being a major contributor to this statistic.
Risks start from the first drop
To determine a “safe” level of alcohol consumption, scientific evidence would need to prove that consuming alcohol up to a certain amount poses no risk of illness or injury.
However, the new WHO statement clarifies that current evidence does not support the existence of a threshold below which alcohol’s carcinogenic effects do not manifest.
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Additionally, no studies have shown that the potential benefits of light to moderate drinking for cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes outweigh the cancer risks associated with these levels of alcohol consumption.
“We cannot talk about a so-called safe level of alcohol use. It doesn’t matter how much you drink – the risk to the drinker’s health starts from the first drop of any alcoholic beverage. The only thing that we can say for sure is that the more you drink, the more harmful it is – or, in other words, the less you drink, the safer it is,” explains Dr Carina Ferreira-Borges, acting Unit Lead for Noncommunicable Disease Management and Regional Advisor for Alcohol and Illicit Drugs in the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Despite this, the potential beneficial effects of alcohol have long been a contentious topic in research.
“Potential protective effects of alcohol consumption, suggested by some studies, are tightly connected with the comparison groups chosen and the statistical methods used, and may not consider other relevant factors”, clarifies Dr Jürgen Rehm, member of the WHO Regional Director for Europe’s Advisory Council for Noncommunicable Diseases and Senior Scientist at the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research and the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada.
We are missing the bigger picture
Globally, the WHO European Region has the highest levels of alcohol consumption and the greatest proportion of drinkers.
In this region, more than 200 million people are at risk of developing cancers attributable to alcohol.
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Disadvantaged and vulnerable populations experience higher rates of alcohol-related deaths and hospitalizations.
The harms from a given amount and pattern of drinking are more severe for those in lower socioeconomic groups compared to their wealthier counterparts in any society.
“So, when we talk about possible so-called safer levels of alcohol consumption or about its protective effects, we are ignoring the bigger picture of alcohol harm in our Region and the world. Although it is well established that alcohol can cause cancer, this fact is still not widely known to the public in most countries. We need cancer-related health information messages on labels of alcoholic beverages, following the example of tobacco products; we need empowered and trained health professionals who would feel comfortable to inform their patients about alcohol and cancer risk; and we need overall wide awareness of this topic in countries and communities,” adds Dr Ferreira-Borges.
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