Alcohol sold in the European Union must carry a warning about the link between alcohol consumption and cancer, the European branch of the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement issued by its office in Copenhagen.
Recent research shows that "Europeans' awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer needs to be increased and could be significantly improved by placing health warnings on information about alcohol as a cause of breast and colon cancer," the statement said.
The WHO has said that warnings about specific types of cancer are more likely to spark discussions about the risks of alcohol and encourage people to reconsider whether to drink alcohol.
The WHO said a 2019 study showed that per capita alcohol consumption in the EU was twice the world average, and that one in 19 adults died from causes attributed to alcohol, and three in 10 people developed cancer due to alcohol.
Europeans older than 15 consumed 9.2 liters of pure alcohol per capita, far more than the global average of 5.5 liters, the health organization said.
According to her, about 800.000 people die in the European region from causes related to alcohol consumption - almost 2.200 per day - with cancer being the most common cause of death, while public awareness of this link is quite low. /REL
