What does the science tell us about alcohol consumption and cancer risk? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Outgoing Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says alcohol packaged for consumption should bear a warning label about increased risk for cancer. Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson says that recommendation is based on an assumption.

Nelson:  There is not a safe level of alcohol consumption. Some of the data does suggest that that's probably true, other data are not quite as convincing in that space. But I think his warning is that particularly for some diseases like breast cancer, where alcohol intake has been more correlated with breast cancer risk, that there may not be a safe level of alcohol consumption. And so he's suggesting that that would be a warning he would provide. I think that's going to be the new landscape for how do we further reduce cancer risk.   :31

Nelson notes that when cigarette packaging was required to bear a warning about cancer smoking rates began a long decline, followed by reduced rates of lung cancer, and says that may be the strategy in the case of alcohol consumption as well. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.