Which Countries Warn That Alcohol May Cause Cancer?
Should the United States follow the surgeon general’s call on Friday for cancer warning labels on alcohol, it would join a tiny contingent of nations that advise drinkers of the risk.
The World Health Organization concluded in 1988 that alcohol is carcinogenic to humans, and it has for years said that the harms of alcohol were well documented. “No safe amount of alcohol consumption for cancers can be established,” the W.H.O. reported in 2023.
But a group of researchers noted in a study published in 2020 that only a quarter of the world’s countries require any health warnings on alcohol. Their language is generally vague, and cancer warnings are rare.
The report from the U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, included an overview of studies and reviews published over the last 20 years, including a global study of 195 countries and territories involving 28 million people. The research found that greater alcohol consumption was associated with higher risks of cancer.
Only South Korea has a label warning about liver cancer. In 2016, the country mandated a group of labels for alcohol, some of which include warnings about liver cancer.
