it causes seven types of cancer and birth defects. should alcohol have a warning label?
5 minute read
alcohol is an integral part of our lives, says dr. tim naimi, but "it’s very clear that it isn't a health tonic anymore.”
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“when i buy a can of corn, i know how many milligrams of calcium there are and i know how much is the serving size, but there’s nothing on the bottle of alcohol, except that it says ‘v 40%.’ what is that? i don’t know.”
this from dr. tim naimi, director of the university of victoria’s canadian institute for substance use research (cisur) and professor of public health and social policy in victoria, b.c.
“people should know that alcohol can cause at least seven different kinds of cancer and can cause birth defects. there’s none of that stuff.”
naimi, also an alcohol epidemiologist, is a passionate advocate for overhauling canada’s alcohol policies to help consumers make informed choices and have a regulatory framework similar to tobacco and cannabis. his research focuses on substance use, particularly binge drinking and the health effects of moderate drinking.
alcohol is “not a health tonic”
he’d be the first one to tell you, though, that drinking alcohol is part of our culture and definitely has its place.
“there are many reasons why people drink,” he says. “and it’s really important to acknowledge that for some people, it makes them happy. it’s an integral part of certain friendships, cultural things, so that’s all fine. alcohol is a legal product. but when it comes to health, what’s changed is that it’s very clear now that alcohol is not a health tonic anymore.”
he led the canadian alcohol policy evaluation project (cape), a collaborative venture at cisur that involved researchers from institutions across the country to evaluate and score each of the provinces, territories and the federal government on how they are delivering on alcohol policies based on 11 categories, including health and safety messaging, pricing and taxation. the cape report card was released in may — none of the jurisdictions received a passing grade, ctv news reported.
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on the lower end, the northwest territories scored 32 per cent, manitoba had the highest grade at 44 per cent, while the federal government came in at just 37 per cent. this is the second federal assessment and the third edition of cape.
even though the cape scores were pretty dismal, naimi says there’s a lot of good when it comes to alcohol policy in canada, but there’s not enough of it and it’s too scattered.
“the message we have here is that alcohol is a legal substance that causes lots of problems, many of which are highly preventable with effective public policies,” he says. “but it’s going to take a lot of political work to get there. we need to have more of a public health approach to dealing with prevention and treatment instead of telling people to drink less because we know that’s not really effective.”
canada’s guidance on alcohol and health caused debate with the stark update to the guidelines released in january, the first update by the canadian centre on substance use and addiction in 11 years to bring it in line with the latest evidence on alcohol consumption and health and safety risks. the report on the new guidelines says that an estimated 40 per cent of people living in canada aged 15 and older consume more than six drinks per week; it warns that no amount of alcohol is really safe to consume and people who consume up to two standard drinks per week face a low health risk. if you’re having three to six weekly drinks, your risk increases to moderate and is high beyond that consumption.
it’s not so much about amounts of alcohol consumed, and more about the fact it’s just not good for you
naimi says the guidance is less about prescriptive consumption numbers than it is about communicating the main message: “drinking less is good for your health,” adding that the messaging is most important for people who drink to excess because they’re going to benefit the most from reducing consumption.
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he talks about the acute and chronic health effects of alcohol, with drinking more than a little bit increasing the risk of all major forms of heart disease, heart attacks, heart failure, high blood pressure and atrial fibrillation. the main chronic diseases are heart and diseases and cancers — all of which are slow to develop and depend on the cumulative amount of alcohol over your lifetime. the acute problems linked to alcohol are the unintentional injuries, car crashes, drownings and alcohol-related suicides, domestic violence, child neglect and abuse. these, too, can be addressed by drinking less.
policies are the key to reducing how much people drink
alcohol consumption in the population is not so much determined by individuals as it is by broader social norms and alcohol policies. if you want to reduce the amount of heavy drinking and the problems in the population, you have to change policies, according to naimi.
“it comes back to the idea that alcohol is a favoured product and has a very powerful industry lobby,” he says. “most politicians drink and it just has a very strong iconic cultural status in canada. but it’s time for a sea change. i think we need to recognize the harms. we’re in the middle of an opioid epidemic, but the alcohol one has been going on at this rate for decades. but it’s just become like the wallpaper and we accept it. our point is that we need to recognize we have a problem and we need to match it with solutions.”
statistics canada reported 3,790 alcohol-induced deaths in canada in 2020 and 3,875 in 2021, compared with 3,200 in 2019. the 18 per cent jump from 2019 to 2020 was the largest year-over-year change in alcohol-induced deaths seen in 20 years. but naimi says the death toll is 18,000 each year when you include all the acute and chronic impacts.
the cape report offers tailored recommendations for each province, territory and the federal government to strengthen their alcohol policies. the three big areas where policies have the greatest impact are pricing, availability and advertising, with labelling as part of the strategy.
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the yukon tried cancer labels on alcohol in 2017
cisur researchers ran a 2017 study in the yukon putting bright labels on bottles and cans of alcohol in the largest liquor store. the action made news headlines after the alcohol industry threatened the yukon government with legal action over a label warning of the cancer risk associated with alcohol. as a result, the study was halted temporarily and then resumed without the cancer labels, the new york times reported.
the data revealed that people who saw the labels better remembered information on cancer risk and drinking guidelines, and also bought less alcohol.
“at the federal level, there’s no national alcohol act like we have for cannabis and tobacco. so we need better overall leadership,” says naimi, flagging the need to move forward with labelling legislation, taxes and minimum pricing to reduce the health burden on individuals and the health-care system.
“we are all paying a price,” he says. “cheap alcohol is dangerous and tends to be consumed by people who are young or planning to drink a whole lot.”
karen hawthorne is a toronto-based writer.
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