Alcohol’s secret link to raising cancer risk

‘‘The more you drink, the higher your risk.’’ Jennie Connor, University of Otago professors

Downing just one wine or beer a night increases your risk of cancer, according to prominent medical experts.

Whether you imbibe in moderation or go on all-night benders – look out – every year hundreds of Kiwis are dying because of liquor-induced ailments.

But, the experts say, the alcohol industry won’t tell you any of this. They’ve also said supermarket owners are New Zealand’s biggest drug dealers, through their selling liquor.

University of Otago professors Jennie Connor and Doug Sellman are touring the country to talk about alcohol’s links with cancer.

In a Palmerston North lecture this week, Connor said when alcohol was broken down in the body, it was turned in to acetaldehyde – a carcinogenic substance.

The pattern of drinking did not appear to matter, be it small and regular or binging, she said.

‘‘Cancer does not seem to make any difference how you do it, the effects accumulate over many years.

‘‘The more you drink, the higher your risk.’’

The links between cancer and alcohol were well known to the scientific community, but not so much by the public, Connor said.

In 2007, there were 802 alcohol-related premature deaths in New Zealand. Of those, 30 per cent were caused by cancer.

‘‘If you take alcohol away, those deaths would not have occurred.’’

The International Agency for Cancer Research has found alcohol was a carcinogen for cancer of the mouth, oesophagus, larynx, liver, colon, rectum, female breast. One in seven deaths from breast cancer in New Zealand women under 80 was alcohol-related, Connor said.

Genetics played a role, but did not change the fact that risk existed.

‘‘It just means some people are going to be luckier than others.’’ She compared it to wearing seatbelts. ‘‘It is just a numbers game... the risk of losing that lottery was quite low but there was a bigger imperative. As soon as it became the norm people just accepted it.’’

Sellman said alcohol accounted for about as much death and disability as tobacco and high blood pressure.

‘‘There is an enormous amount of harm and conflict that the alcohol industry is just not telling people about.’’

That included liquor’s link to cancer – something alcohol companies kept quiet, he said.

‘‘The alcohol industry are quite happy for the cancer links to be associated with tobacco.’’

Marketing often implied ‘‘the only way to be cool is to drink alcohol’’ and ‘‘for all of us, life in general is better if you have alcohol’’.

Sellman said more controls needed to be put in place.

He suggested reforms such as increasing prices, reducing trading hours, raising the purchasing age and lowering the drink-driving limit. Education programmes did very little to change behaviour.

He cited Sir Geoffery Palmer who, during a review into liquor laws when he was Law Commission president, said alcohol was a drug.

‘‘Supermarket owners are the biggest drug dealers in New Zealand, they are good people but the system has made them into sociopaths,’’ Palmer said.

Connor said suggestions alcohol had heart benefits were ‘‘full of holes’’.

‘‘There are safer ways to get that benefit. The industry has been pushing it for 40 years – it does not make it true,’’ she said.

The pair cited a variety of research papers from and supported by groups such as the World Health Organisation and Cancer Research UK, including 500 population studies.