Public ‘must wake up’ to cancer risk from excessive drinking

Alcohol is the cause of around 900 incidences of cancer in this country each year, and 500 patients will die of the disease.

At an Irish Cancer Society public talk last night on the links between cancer and alcohol, addiction psychiatrist Dr Peter Rice said alcohol is a known cause of seven types of cancer — mouth, throat, voice box, oesophagus, breast, bowel and liver.

“While there are no ‘safe’ alcohol limits, the more you drink, the greater the risk of cancer,” said Dr Rice.

Average alcohol consumption in Ireland increased by 145% between 1960 and 2010, with Irish people drinking more than the European average.

According to Dr Rice, the increase in drinking can be, in part, attributed to the “move away from pub to house drinking”.

“Our licensing system around alcohol is designed for pubs, the belief being that if you control the pubs, you will have less problems with excessive alcohol consumption in or outside them.

“This isn’t enough now, though. Regulation needs to change to include the new kinds of drinking and that includes minimum unit pricing.”

Dr Rice chairs the executive committee of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems. That group developed the proposal for minimum unit pricing in 2007, which was adopted by the Scottish government and became law in 2012. Dr Rice is involved in implementing minimum unit pricing and is to receive the Charles Cully Medal for leadership in the fields of cancer control and health policy.

He dismissed the widely held view minimum unit pricing will not deter hardened drinkers. “Research repeatedly shows that when alcohol prices fall, the amount consumed will increase and when the price goes up, the most dependant drinkers will change their behaviour.

“In the early 1990s, heavy drinkers would have drank a half of bottle of vodka a day, now it’s a litre a day as this kind of alcohol is cheap.”