Cancer Council Australia Releases Position Statement on Alcohol Consumption

The Cancer Council Australia (CCA) Alcohol Working Group has published a
position statement in the May 2011 Medical Journal of Australia, claiming that
alcohol use causes cancer and that any level of consumption “increases the
risk of developing an alcohol-related cancer.” According to the statement, an
analysis verified by “external experts” found that “the level of risk increases
in line with the level of consumption” and that an estimated 5,070 cases
of cancer “are attributable to long-term chronic use of alcohol each year in
Australia.” It also noted that “alcohol use may contribute to weight (fat) gain,
and greater body fatness is a convincing cause of cancers of the oesophagus,
pancreas, bowel, endometrium, kidney and breast (in postmenopausal
women).”

CCA recommends that consumers (i) reduce “the risk of alcohol-related harm
over a lifetime” by drinking “no more than two standard drinks on any day,”
and (ii) reduce the risk of alcohol-related injury by limiting themselves to “no
more than four standard drinks on a single occasion.” The council has also
urged children younger than age 18 and pregnant or nursing mothers to
avoid alcohol altogether. “Alcoholic drinks and ethanol are carcinogenic to
humans,” concludes the position statement. “There is no evidence that there
is a safe threshold of alcohol consumption for avoiding cancer, or that cancer
risk varies between the type of alcoholic beverage consumed.”