Labels on alcohol products like beer and wine should carry warnings of their links to cancer, the U.S. Surgeon General said.
Labels on alcohol products like beer and wine should carry warnings of their links to cancer, the U.S. Surgeon General said, citing an increased risk of developing tumors in the breast and other parts of the body.
Scientific evidence of the connections between alcohol and cancer has been rising for decades, but less than half of Americans recognize the risk, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said in an advisory Friday.
Alcohol causes about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 related deaths each year in the U.S., Murthy said in a statement, far more than the 13,500 alcohol-related fatalities from traffic crashes. Direct links have been shown between alcohol and at least seven types of cancer, he said, including those of the throat, mouth and liver, and more than 16% of breast cancers.
Shares of U.S. and European drinks makers declined. Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the maker of Budweiser beer, fell 1.8% in Brussels, Constellation Brands Inc. was down 1.4% before U.S. markets opened and Molson Coors Beverage Co. lost 1%.
—Bloomberg News
