Posted Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicinethis work was carried out for the International Center for Research on Cancer (IARC) by a group of international experts who have reviewed all existing data, relating to public policies aimed at lowering alcohol consumption in a population.
It turns out that the most effective measures in this area are to increase alcohol taxes, set minimum prices, prohibit alcohol sales or consumption below a minimum age, limit the number of alcohol sales points, days or hours of sale, or strictly prohibiting alcohol.
The state monopoly on the sale of alcohol as well as coordinated public policies have also shown their effectiveness for “Reduce the global cancer burden”observe the researchers.
If, from 2007 to 2011, I Circ works showed the effectiveness of tax policies, pricing and prohibition of smoking in the reduction of the prevalence of smoking, no similar evaluation has so far been made for alcoholic beverages.
At least 7 associated cancers
A direct link between alcohol consumption and cancer has been established for seven cancers (colon-rectum, esophagus, liver, oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, breast). All alcoholic beverages are affected: beer, wine, spirits.
This results mainly from the fact that ethanol – the main component of alcoholic beverages – once in the body, is transformed into acetaldehyde, substance which causes DNA lesions, which can cause carcinogenic mutations.
-After a first study showing that the reduction or stopping alcohol consumption lowers the risk of cancer, that published on Wednesday proves that public intervention lowers the number of cancers induced by alcohol, underline the experts.
However, they point out some limits to their work: all available data come from public policies in high-income countries (United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Sweden) and they have the strong growth in 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 the WHO 2022-2030 alcohol.
https://www.whatsupdoc-lemag.fr/article/les-femmes-et-les-hommes-pas-egaux-face-lalcool-les-medecins-doivent-lavoir-en-tete
In 2020, some 741,300 new cases of cancer were allocated to alcohol consumption, including moderate, worldwide according to CIR.
With AFP
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