Drinks industry downplaying cancer risk ‘like tobacco giants did’

THE alcohol industry is misleading drinkers about the risk of cancer in the same way tobacco companies used to, scientists have said.

Nine in 10 websites and publications funded by the alcohol lobby “distorted or misrepresented” the evidence about the health risks of drinking, a study found. Alcohol consumption was an established risk factor for a range of diseases, accounting for about four per cent of new cancer cases annually in the UK, researchers said.

Many alcohol makers fund organisations that claim to promote responsible drinking and marketing of such products. But a study by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet said most of the websites played down the true risks of alcohol, or denied any cancer link at all.

The industry most commonly presented the relationship between alcohol and cancer as highly complex, implying there was no evidence of a consistent or independent link.

Other tactics included denying that any relationship existed or claiming that there was no risk for light or moderate drinking, as well as presenting alcohol as just one risk among many.

Prof Mark Petticrew, the lead author, told the journal Drug and Alcohol Review that the tactics employed by “responsible drinking bodies” were similar to “the global tobacco industry’s decades-long campaign to mislead the public about the risk of cancer, which also used front organisations and corporate social activities”. However, the authors said those who drank within the recommended guidelines – no more than 14 units a week – “shouldn’t be too concerned when it comes to cancer”.

Katherine Brown, the Institute of Alcohol Studies chief executive, said: “Like the tobacco industry before them, alcohol companies are misleading consumers about the evidence linking their products to cancer. We cannot rely on a profit-driven industry to promote public health.”

Prof Sir Ian Gilmore, the Alcohol Health Alliance UK chairman, said: “People have both a need and a right to clear information about the health risks of drinking alcohol.”