Latest information on health risks of alcohol released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us that while about 20,000 adult persons die from alcohol related cancers in a year in the USA, as many as 25 times this number, or 522,000 (367,000 for women and 155,000 for men) to be precise, alcohol associated cancers occurred in the USA in 2021. It is this larger number that is more relevant, and scary, in countries with lesser levels of health care access and early detection. The latest official information from the USA also establishes that at least seven cancers (and perhaps ten) are linked to cancers. These seven cancers are—mouth, throat (pharynx), voice box (larynx), esophagus, colon and rectum, liver and breast (in women). In addition three other cancers have also been linked to alcohol by several studies, including pancreatic, stomach and prostrate. Among men the highest number of alcohol-related cancers are colorectal cancers while among women these are breast cancers. Further this latest information tells us that all drinks that contain alcohol, including red and white wine, beer and liquor, increase the risk of cancer.
According to the WHO status report on health and alcohol about 3 million (30 lakh) deaths are attributable to alcohol consumption at world level in a year. The same report has pointed out that the harmful use of alcohol is a component cause of more than 200 diseases and injury conditions, the most notable being alcohol dependence, liver cirrhosis, cancers and injuries, the latest causal relationships established are those between alcohol consumption and incidence of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDs. The World Report on Violence and Health (WRVH) says that alcohol abuse may also be an important factor in depression. More ominously the WRVH report says that alcohol and drug abuse also play an important role in suicide. In the USA, at least one quarter of all suicides are reported to involve alcohol abuse. New British guidelines on liquor have also been seen as a big help by campaigners against the many-sided risks of alcoholic drinks not just in Britain but in other countries as well. Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer of Britain, overcame a lot of resistance from liquor industry lobbyists to radically change two decade old guidelines which had understated health risks of liquor while also either implicitly conceding or at least not adequately refuting imagined claims of some health benefits (for example in the context of red wine) spread by lobbyists and sellers of liquor.The new guidelines came in the wake of growing concern over reported 500 per cent increase in deaths from liver disease among working age people in Britain since the 1970s. Another serious concern came with growing evidence of higher risks of a range of cancers associated with liquor, including red wine. The evidence regarding the closer link between liquor and a range of cancers was supported by a new review from the Committee on Carcinogenicity in Britain. The development of the new guidelines was chaired by Prof. Mark Petticrew, Prof. of Public Health Evaluation at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and by Prof. Sally Macintyre, Prof. Emeritus at the University of Glasgow. The guidelines on liquor consumption released the Chief Medical Officer to replace nearly two decade old guidelines warn that drinking any level of alcohol increases the risk of a range of cancers. The guidelines also make it clear that no level of alcohol is safe for drinking in pregnancy. These guidelines inform that drinking regularly over time can lead to a wide range of illnesses including cancers, strokes, heart diseases, liver diseases, and damage to the brain and nervous system.
On the other hand, these guidelines also make it clear that there is no justification for drinking for health reasons. Coming to social impacts, the WRVH says that both from the perspective of the assaulter and the victim, alcohol and drug consumption increases the risk of sexual violence, including rape. According to a widely cited paper on ‘alcohol and sexual assaults’ by Antonia Abbey, Tina Zawacki and others of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (USA), “ at least one half of all violent crimes involved alcohol consumption by the perpetrator, the victim or both. Sexual violence fits this pattern. Thus across disparate population studies, researchers consistently have found that approximately one half of all sexual assaults are committed by men who have been drinking alcohol. According to the WHO, alcohol consumption in adolescents, especially binge drinking, negatively affects school performance, increased participation in crime and leads to risky sexual behavior. The WRVH report says that reducing the availability of liquor can be an important community strategy to reduce crime and violence as research has shown alcohol to be an important situational factor that can precipitate violence. There are very heavy social costs of alcohol consumption in the form of various forms of violence, crime and disruption of relationships. The WHO status report has presented various estimates that have been made from time to time about financial implications of these social costs:These estimates would be much higher at present day prices. Hence the efforts made by government to increase their income from taxes on liquor by increasing liquor consumption by opening more and more liquor vends in villages are highly counter-productive considering the very high social and health adverse impacts. Increase of liquor production and consumption causes environmental ruin due to very serious pollution caused by distilleries and the vast amounts of water wasted or polluted in the course of increasing alcohol availability. The Economist reported some time back that 960 litres of water is required to make available one litre of wine. An enormous lot of precious land and water are taken away from producing staple food at a time when food security is increasingly threatened.