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by bryik 1623 days ago
> "Alcohol has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen (carcinogenic to humans) for decades by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. It's right up there with tobacco and asbestos."

Other Group 1 carcinogens [0]:

- processed meat

- Salted fish, Chinese-style (?)

- solar radiation

- outdoor air pollution

- wood dust

- leather dust

A big problem with that CBC quote is that there is no way everything in Group 1 has the same (or even approximately the same) risk of causing cancer. How could eating cold cuts from a deli be equivalent to smoking a cigarette or inhaling mustard gas?

> The risk of dying from lung cancer before age 85 is 22.1% for a male smoker and 11.9% for a female smoker, in the absence of competing causes of death. The corresponding estimates for lifelong nonsmokers are a 1.1% probability of dying from lung cancer before age 85 for a man of European descent, and a 0.8% probability for a woman.[1]

*This* is the kind of smoking gun they should be showing; ~20% increase in the chance of dying from lung cancer for men who smoke. How much does alcohol increase chances of dying from cancer?

0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IARC_group_1

1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_tobacco#Canc...

1 comments

Looks like about 4% of all cases of cancer can be attributed to alcohol consumption:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2...

Not the leading cause, but significant, especially when considered along with the other health based harms.