Studies have found that drinking alcohol causes at least seven different kinds of cancer. Public health bodies say there is no safe amount of alcohol.

Any small health benefits are trumped by the risk of cancer. But most people, including Australians, are unaware of the risk. And there hasn’t been public pressure, by voters, for new policies.

Hence, members of the powerful alcohol lobby must have tumbled from their bar stools when they heard the news.

From New Year’s Day 2026 – when much of the world is nursing a hangover – Irish law will require that all bottles of beer, wine and spirits will carry two warning labels, in red capital letters.

“THERE IS A DIRECT LINK BETWEEN ALCOHOL AND FATAL CANCERS,” reads the first.

And “DRINKING ALCOHOL CAUSES LIVER DISEASE” is the second.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Parliament is debating a bill that would require all bottles of beer, spirits and wine to be labelled with a warning, about a “direct causal link between alcohol consumption and the development of fatal cancers”.

Thailand and Norway are developing similar cancer-risk labelling.

Alaska, depending on the future of a local bill, could require stores selling alcohol to display signs warning of the link between cancer and booze.

Australia’s policy response has so far been modest. Alcoholic drinks with more than 1.15 per cent alcohol by volume must include a warning that “alcohol can cause lifelong harm to your baby”.

In October, the government talked about the possibility of mandating general health warnings on packaging.

These could be similar to those found on cigarettes, including confronting images of the health risks associated with drinking.

What’s going on?

This may be a case of governments getting ahead of regular folk.

In 2016, a New Zealand study found that alcohol wasn’t just associated with cancer, it actually caused seven specific cancers.

The research found “the epidemiological evidence can support the judgement that alcohol causes cancer of the oropharynx, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colon, rectum and breast”.

The oropharynx includes the roof of the mouth, the side walls of the throat, the tonsils, and the tongue.

In conclusion, the study found that alcohol probably causes cancer at other sites of the body.

The author noted: “Current estimates suggest that alcohol-attributable cancers at these sites make up 5.8 per cent of all cancer deaths world-wide.”

Other studies have supported that claim. Cancer education bodies are struggling to get the message out.

Most Australians in the dark

According to Cancer Council Victoria, most Australians are unaware that alcohol causes cancer. Specifically, fewer than 20 per cent of us are aware that alcohol can cause breast cancer.

Then, at the beginning of 2022, the World Health Organisation announced there is no safe amount of alcohol.

Any protective effect against the risk of cardiovascular diseases was trumped by the carcinogenic effects of alcohol.

The media response to the news was muted.

However, Canada, Ireland and other countries were quick to jump on this finding and rewrite their policies.

In January 2023, Canada caused an international stir with new guidelines that recommended no more than two drinks a week.

And that was only if you really, really must drink at all.