Alcoholic Drinks: Cancer

(asked on 25th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of Professor Mark Petticrew's paper How alcohol industry organisations mislead the public about alcohol and cancer, what steps they are taking to raise public awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer.


Answered by
Lord O'Shaughnessy Portrait
Lord O'Shaughnessy
This question was answered on 2nd November 2017

No specific assessment has been made of Professor Petticrew’s paper. There are no plans to change the current voluntary labelling agreement; however, the Government has been clear about the risks of alcohol. The United Kingdom Chief Medical Officer’s (UK CMO) low risk drinking guidelines recommend drinking no more than 14 units a week to reduce risk, and state that there is no level of regular drinking that can be considered completely safe in relation to some cancers. Public Health England regularly sets out the dangers of alcohol, for example promoting the message that you can reduce your risk of cancers by making lifestyle changes through campaigns like ‘One You’.

The Government has made clear that it expects the UK CMO’s guidance to be reflected on alcohol labels and has provided industry with advice and examples of how best to do that. We know that a number of organisations, such as the British Retail Consortium, are already implementing this guidance.

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