Should Canada put cancer warnings on alcohol? Doctor says we have a right to know the risks

As the U.S. debates whether it should put cancer warnings on alcohol, a Canadian public health adviser says Canadians also have a right to know the risks of what they're drinking. 

U.S. surgeon general Vivek Murthy on Friday called for alcoholic drinks in his country to include labels warning people that alcohol consumption is linked to a higher risk of developing cancer. He also called for the guidelines on alcohol consumption limits to be reassessed to reflect those risks. 

Canada already reassessed its guidelines in 2023 when the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), the organization that advises the government on alcohol consumption, dramatically changed its recommendations to reflect the growing body of research connecting booze to several common forms of cancer. 

Under previous guidance, the CCSA recommended a maximum of 10 standard alcoholic drinks per week for women and 15 for men. Now, it says no amount of alcohol is completely safe, and recommends a maximum of two drinks a week to stay within the lowest risk threshold. 

CCSA CEO Dr. Alexander Caudarella, a family physician, spoke to As It Happens guest host Stephanie Skenderis about the U.S. surgeon general's advisory, and why he believes Canada should put cancer warning labels on alcohol. 

This warning from the U.S. surgeon general, it may cause a lot of people to cringe when they think about their consumption over the holidays. Was it music to your ears? 

It is good news because it's about helping people understand things better. It's about letting people know. And, ultimately, they can do what is best for them.

Most people don't understand, actually, even in Canada and in the U.S., that there is a link between alcohol and cancer. So having something that's clear and consistent is really, really important. 

This is all about trying to get the most important information into people's hands.

A few years ago, there was this public health experiment into the effectiveness of warning labels on alcohol in Yukon liquor stores. Researchers said the labels were successful in that context, but there was a lot of industry pushback to that pilot to the point that that project was actually paused. So, I mean, how optimistic are you that we will see something like labels used more broadly across Canada? 

What I think is different now, and I think will be a big changing point, is that this is coming from the public as well. 

I'm a family doctor and I can't tell you how many times people have come in with questions or surprised about something that they read. And increasingly, people are really standing up and saying: I have a right to know what I'm putting in my body. 

Do you think a label is the best way to get that message across or is there a better way? 

Labelling can be a really important tool…. You want people talking around the dinner table. You want people learning about it where they can learn about it. And then you want people going, for example, to their family doctors. That's something we're working on, too, is helping primary-care practitioners be there with the answers.