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Less than half of Americans know that alcohol is a carcinogen

thecounter.org

11–20 of 188 posts

Re: Less than half of Americans know that alcohol is a carcinogen

#12
This is a frustrating article, because it does not say how dangerous alcohol is. Maybe alcohol raises the risk of certain types of cancers, but only by a very tiny amount. Relative to other risks, even other risks from alcohol, do we really need to care about that?

Re: Less than half of Americans know that alcohol is a carcinogen

#14
post #4

I think people are already well aware that drinking alcohol is unhealthy, and I don’t think that anyone, who consumes it despite that, will stop after learning it is a “carcinogen”.

I very well might.

I honestly had no idea there was anything unhealthy about moderate drinking. Every so often we even see dubious headlines about "daily red wine has health benefits". I'm not aware of specific, nor do I particularly believe it's good for you, but I really had no idea that it's unhealthy.

Re: Less than half of Americans know that alcohol is a carcinogen

#15
post #5

The alcohol industries have done an amazing job with their propaganda. Many people genuinely believe that a glass of wine every day is actually healthy for you.

The alcohol industry you’re thinking of is more of beer and spirits. There are ton of studies showing benefits from wine, it’s not quite the same.

Re: Less than half of Americans know that alcohol is a carcinogen

#16
I don't think there are many that consider alcohol healthy at this point. Plus most people are pretty moderate consumers of the stuff.

burnt foods also increase cancer. But its kinda marginal.

https://www.nhs.uk/news/cancer/warning-over-burnt-toast-chem...

Re: Less than half of Americans know that alcohol is a carcinogen

#17
I bought a large mixing bowl, and it had a California Cancer label on the bottom. It's a regular metal bowl. If you put cancer labels on everything, people will quickly ignore them.

Maybe it would be better if there was a scale on it, like this is a 1 banana equivalent risk or something, but then how do you determine my exposure to the cancer in the metal bowl.

Re: Less than half of Americans know that alcohol is a carcinogen

#18
This would have more novel potential by switching the word ethanol for alcohol in the title, i.e. methanol, which is an alcohol, is known to metabolise to formic acid (which is present as the formate ion) via formaldehyde, which is a known carcinogen, in a process initiated by the alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver. "More than half" likely do not know of the carcinogenicity of acetaldehyde (systematic name ethanal).

> potiup

Re: Less than half of Americans know that alcohol is a carcinogen

#19

What percentage of Americans even know that alcohol is a drug? As a Wisconsin native, I've seen first hand the toxic culture surrounding drinking in America, including having a relative die of alcoholism. Still, we don't seem to look at it like other drugs, even though it ruins lives just as effectively as something like heroin.

I'd like to see a study on alcohol addiction that shows that all or some specific alcoholic drinks are as addictive as heroin.

The comment said that it ruins lives just as effectively, not that it's as addictive.

Two things don't need to be equally strong or powerful to each get the job done.

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