WIRSPA Challenges Surgeon General's Alcohol and Cancer Findings: NASEM Study Reveals Different Conclusions

The West Indies Rum and Spirits Producers’ Association Inc. (WIRSPA) is disputing findings published by United States (US) Surgeon General Vivek Murthy linking alcohol consumption with various cancers.

In an advisory last Friday, Murthy outlined the “growing body of evidence” showing the link between alcohol use and at least seven types of cancer – including mouth, throat, voice box, oesophagus, breast, liver and colon/rectum. He also called for warning labels on alcoholic beverages to alert people about the risk.

However, WIRSPA chief executive officer Vaughn Renwick pointed to the findings of another study which he said had been published a few weeks earlier.

“Just three weeks before the Surgeon General made those remarks, the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) published a review on alcohol and health that’s going to inform the new 2025 to 2030 dietary guidelines in the US and parts of their findings dealing with alcohol consumption were actually quite different from what the Surgeon General said.

‘Not enough evidence’

“One of the issues the Surgeon General said is that there’s this association with alcohol and cancer, but he didn’t talk about what level of alcohol consumption, and what NASEM found is that there basically isn’t enough evidence, any statistically significant evidence, to link moderate alcohol consumption with any type of cancer,” he said.

The advisory stated alcohol consumption was the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States after tobacco and obesity with less than half of Americans being aware of the risk.

On the other hand, the review did not draw definitive conclusions, save increased risks of breast and colorectal cancer, associated with higher levels of alcohol consumption. (CA)