Whom to believe?

Re: Drunk on junk science, Terence Corcoran; June 21 Thank you to Terence Corcoran for bracketing me with some world-leading health researchers and regulators when he pronounced us all “drunk on junk science” for accepting evidence that alcohol causes cancer.

These included the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer, the leading medical research journal The Lancet, Health Canada, Public Health Ontario and several thousand authors, editors and reviewers of journals that publish health-related research.

On Terence’s side of the argument are Canada’s alcohol industry and a maverick economist.

Thanks also for reproducing in full colour Yukon’s chief medical officer of health’s alcohol and cancer warning label that got canned by his government due to perceived legal threats from Beer Canada and other industry groups.

Using latest WHO-approved methods, we estimate that 29 per cent of Canada’s 15,000 alcohol-caused deaths per year were from cancer.

It’s great to live in a country with a free press and free speech. We are all also free to choose our preferred sources of information about what affects our health. So, who should we best trust on whether alcohol use increases cancer risk, our leading doctors and the WHO or … Terence and Beer Canada?