The most effective public health measures to reduce alcohol consumption and, therefore, the number of related cancers, are the increase in taxes, limitation or prohibition of sale and advertising in particular, according to a large study commissioned by the UN agency against cancer.
Published Wednesday at the New England Journal of Medicine, this work was done for the International Cancer Research Center (CIR) by a group of international experts who reviewed all existing data, related to public policies aimed at reducing alcohol consumption in a population.
It turns out that the most effective measures in this area are to increase alcohol taxes, establish minimal prices, prohibit sales or alcohol consumption below a minimum age, limit the amount of points of alcohol, days or hours of sale, or strictly prohibit alcohol.
“Reduce the global cancer load”
The state monopoly on the sale of alcohol, as well as coordinated public policies, have also demonstrated their efficiency to “reduce the burden of global cancer,” observes researchers.
If, from 2007 to 2011, I CIR CIRLS showed the effectiveness of fiscal policies, prices and the prohibition of smoking in reducing the prevalence of smoking, so far a similar evaluation for alcoholic beverages has not been made.
A direct link between alcohol consumption and cancer for seven cancers (colon-right, esophagus, liver, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, breast) has been established. All alcoholic beverages are affected: beer, wine, liquors.
This occurs mainly from the fact that ethanol, the main component of alcoholic beverages, once in the body, is transformed into acetaldehyde, a substance that causes DNA lesions, which can cause carcinogenic mutations.
741,300 new cases of cancer linked to alcohol in 2020
After a first study that shows that the reduction or detention of alcohol consumption reduces the risk of cancer, which published on Wednesday shows that public intervention reduces the number of cancers induced by alcohol, underlines experts.
However, some limits for their work indicate: all available data come from public policies in high -income countries (United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Sweden) and have the strong growth of advertising and online purchases in recent years.
This study underlines its authors, confirms the relevance of the actions recommended by the last global action plan against alcohol 2022-2030 of the World Health Organization (WHO).
In 2020, about 741,300 new cases of alcohol consumption, including moderate, worldwide according to CIR.
Source: BFM TV
