Alcohol Linked to Cancer - Harmful to Women's Health

Booze linked to cancer

Even moderation harmful

There's yet another reason to stay away from booze.

Drinking alcohol can now be definitively added to the list of factors that contribute to cancer.

It's long been known that alcohol is a carcinogenic, but new research confirms that even moderate drinking poses a cancer risk. New research shows one drink of alcohol a day increases a woman's risk of developing breast cancer by 7 to 10%.

In light of this disturbing trend, the Toronto Cancer Prevention Coalition and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) will be holding a seminar today at the St. Lawrence Hall with cancer experts on alcohol, cancer and public policy to address research and emerging prevention opportunities.

"We will give biological reasons on how alcohol is acting to influence all these cancers and look into the number of people who are actually being killed by alcohol via cancer," said Dr. Jurgen Rehm, section head of public health and regulatory policy at CAMH.

According to the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer, almost 460,000 cancer deaths worldwide in 2002 were caused by alcohol.

In Canada, alcohol is killing more than 1,800 people a year and leading the number of deaths caused by alcohol is esophageal cancer in men at 400 deaths a year and breast cancer in women at 300 deaths.

For more information, log onto camh.net

Source: Sun Media