BY DR. JOSEPH LIM
(By Dr. Joseph D. Lim and Dr. Kenneth Lester Lim, BS-MMG, DDM, MSc-OI)
THE CENTER for Science in the Public Interest supports the US Surgeon General’s call for cancer warnings on alcohol labels.
The US Surgeon General’s Advisory on Alcohol and Cancer Risk recommends updating alcoholic beverage labels to include cancer warnings.
Ireland recently became the first country in the European Union (and second worldwide after South Korea) to better regulate drinking alcohol by adding cancer warnings and health information to alcohol products.
The United States hasn’t updated its own alcohol warning labels in 36 years.
The New York Times reports that only a quarter of countries require health warnings on alcohol.
The US requires such labels in place since 1989 and not updated since.
Warning labels currently say that “women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects” and that “consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems.”
“The science is clear: alcohol causes cancer,” says Eva Greenthal, CSPI Senior Policy Scientist, adding that many Americans remain in the dark about the significant link between alcohol and cancer.
(It could very well be the case for many Filipinos as well.)
In 2020 CSPI, the American Institute for Cancer Research, Consumer Federation of America, and US Alcohol Policy Alliance, sent a letter to Surgeon General Vivek Murthy requesting the specific labeling.
Currently, alcohol labels require a Surgeon General warning stating that alcohol “may cause health problems”. CSPI calls it “a gross and misleading understatement of alcohol’s known health impacts.”
To change the health warning statement, the Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), in consultation with the Surgeon General, must report to the US Congress on the need for updates. CSPI and six other public health organizations petitioned TTB to issue such a report in 2020.
“We urge TTB and Congress to act swiftly to promote a more informed public and prevent the 20,000 annual cancer deaths attributable to alcohol,” says Greenthal citing a Surgeon General’s advisory.
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Dr. Joseph D. Lim, Ed. D., is the former Associate Dean of the College of Dentistry, University of the East; former Dean, College of Dentistry, National University; Past President and Honorary Fellow of the Asian Oral Implant Academy; Honorary Fellow of the Japan College of Oral Implantologists; Honorary Life Member of the Thai Association of Dental Implantology; and Founding Chairman of the Philippine College of Oral Implantologists. For questions on dental health, e-mail jdlim2008@gmail.com or text 0917-8591515.
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Dr. Kenneth Lester Lim, BS-MMG, DDM, MSc-OI, graduated Doctor of Dental Medicine, University of the Philippines, College of Dentistry, Manila, 2011; Bachelor of Science in Marketing Management, De la Salle University, Manila, 2002; and Master of Science (MSc.) in Oral Implantology, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, 2019. He is an Associate Professor; Fellow, International Congress of Oral Implantologists; and Fellow, Philippine College of Oral Implantologists. For questions on dental health, e-mail limdentalcenter@gmail.com/PN
