it causes seven types of cancer and birth defects. should alcohol have a warning label?

this from dr. tim naimi , director of the university of victoria’s canadian institute for substance use research (cisur) and professor of public health and social policy in victoria, b.c.

alcohol is “not a health tonic”

he led the canadian alcohol policy evaluation project (cape), a collaborative venture at cisur that involved researchers from institutions across the country to evaluate and score each of the provinces, territories and the federal government on how they are delivering on alcohol policies based on 11 categories, including health and safety messaging, pricing and taxation. the cape report card was released in may — none of the jurisdictions received a passing grade, ctv news reported .

on the lower end, the northwest territories scored 32 per cent, manitoba had the highest grade at 44 per cent, while the federal government came in at just 37 per cent. this is the second federal assessment and the third edition of cape.

canada’s guidance on alcohol and health caused debate with the stark update to the guidelines released in january, the first update by the canadian centre on substance use and addiction in 11 years to bring it in line with the latest evidence on alcohol consumption and health and safety risks. the report on the new guidelines says that an estimated 40 per cent of people living in canada aged 15 and older consume more than six drinks per week; it warns that no amount of alcohol is really safe to consume and people who consume up to two standard drinks per week face a low health risk. if you’re having three to six weekly drinks, your risk increases to moderate and is high beyond that consumption.

it’s not so much about amounts of alcohol consumed, and more about the fact it’s just not good for you

policies are the key to reducing how much people drink

statistics canada reported 3,790 alcohol-induced deaths in canada in 2020 and 3,875 in 2021, compared with 3,200 in 2019. the 18 per cent jump from 2019 to 2020 was the largest year-over-year change in alcohol-induced deaths seen in 20 years. but naimi says the death toll is 18,000 each year when you include all the acute and chronic impacts.

the yukon tried cancer labels on alcohol in 2017

cisur researchers ran a 2017 study in the yukon putting bright labels on bottles and cans of alcohol in the largest liquor store. the action made news headlines after the alcohol industry threatened the yukon government with legal action over a label warning of the cancer risk associated with alcohol. as a result, the study was halted temporarily and then resumed without the cancer labels, the new york times reported .