Earlier this month, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released an advisory about the link between alcohol and seven types of cancer, calling on Congress to require warning labels on alcoholic beverage containers to inform consumers about this risk.
Coincidentally, it was almost exactly 60 years ago, on January 11, 1964, that an earlier surgeon general famously issued the U.S. government’s first official warning about a different public health danger: smoking tobacco products.
These days, it’s hard to imagine a time when people weren’t aware that smoking is a major cause of health problems like lung and throat cancer. Yet in the early 1960s, cigarette advertisements and packaging were succeeding at making smoking look glamorous and cool, with no government restrictions or warning labels.
Over 40% of U.S. adults considered themselves smokers when Surgeon General Luther Terry made the televised announcement that smoking can cause serious illness and, in many cases, death. He was sharing the findings of a 10-person committee of the nation’s leading scientists (half of whom were smokers themselves), who had consulted over 7,000 articles to compile a comprehensive report entitled Smoking and Health. It stated that there were likely links between smoking cigarettes and deadly diseases like lung cancer, emphysema, throat cancer, chronic bronchitis, and coronary heart disease. The report built on a growing body of research that had begun connecting smoking to the increased prevalence of lung disease, though other factors, including smog from factories and automobile exhaust, were also blamed.
Terry’s 1964 announcement was a watershed moment for public health. For the first time, the U.S. government began advising people to quit smoking. Beginning in 1965, cigarette packages began displaying caution labels, starting with the mild warning “Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health.” However, in subsequent years, the government mandated much stronger warning labels, eventually accompanied by graphic images of smoking-related illnesses and complications. At the same time, cigarette advertising has been severely restricted, effectively destroying the glamorous image that tobacco companies spent so many decades (and so many millions of dollars) trying to cultivate.
A new surgeon general’s warning:
- According to current U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, alcohol is responsible for around 100,000 U.S. cancer cases and 20,000 cancer-related deaths every year, making it the third-largest preventable cause of cancer behind tobacco and obesity.
- Murthy hopes that Congress will amend warning labels to add information about alcohol increasing the risk of colorectal, esophageal, liver, mouth, throat, breast, and larynx cancers.
- There are already warnings on alcoholic beverages about the dangers of drinking during pregnancy and drinking while driving or operating heavy machinery.
