Alcohol-warning labels and pricing could prevent cancer deaths

If Canadian jurisdictions mandated warning labels on alcohol and minimum pricing tied to the number of standard drinks in a container, it could prevent hundreds of cancer diagnoses and deaths, according to a new study led by University of Victoria's Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR).

The research, published in Lancet Public Health, set out to see how different alcohol policy scenarios could potentially reduce the number of alcohol-related cancers in Canada. The researchers looked at five scenarios: two involving setting price minimums tied to standard drinks in a container - also known as minimum unit pricing-with prices set at $1.75 and $2.00 per standard drink; a warning label with rotating messages and one that just warned against alcohol and cancer risk; and one that combined the $2.00 minimum unit price with a cancer warning label.

These are evidence-based policies that jurisdictions are considering - there's a cancer-warning bill in the Canadian Senate right now, and some provinces have implemented or are thinking about implementing minimum unit pricing - but they're under-used. We wanted to see just how big of a difference bringing in these policies could make in reducing alcohol-related cancers."

Adam Sherk, CISUR scientist and study's lead author

Researchers used modeling to see the impact these policy changes could have on cancer incidences and deaths. The combination of a $2.00 minimum price and a cancer warning showed the strongest reduction, leading to 674 fewer cancer cases (down to 8,824 from 9,498) and 216 fewer deaths (going from 3,866 to 3,617) once the effects were fully realized. The reduction was largest in lower-income populations and younger age groups.

"We believe this is the first study to model the impacts of warning labels on cancer cases and deaths, but cancers are just one of many potential health harms related to drinking," says Sherk. "If you included the many other alcohol-caused harms, like accidents or liver disease, the reduction in deaths would be even higher."

This research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research's Catalyst Grant: Alcohol research to inform health policies and interventions, and was done in collaboration with researchers at the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) and Public Health Ontario.