No Amount of Alcohol Use is Safe When it Comes to Cancer Risk
What is the Incidence?
In 2020, alcohol caused 4% of all new cases of cancer globally, or approximately 741,000 occurrences.¹,² Of these cases, 103,000 occurred in people who drank less than 20g of alcohol per day.¹ In the United States (U.S.), this amount is fewer than 1.4 standard drinks a day on average, with a standard drink being equivalent to 0.6 fl oz of pure alcohol. Examples of a U.S. standard drink are 12 fl oz of beer (5% alcohol by volume [ABV}), 5 fl oz wine (12% ABV), 2-3 fl oz of liqueur (24% ABV), 1.5 fl oz brandy or cognac (40% ABV), or 1.5 fl oz of distilled spirits (40% ABV).³
What is a Standard Drink?
Each of the examples pictured contain 14g of alcohol. This is the size of a United States standard drink, but the size varies from country to country.³ Click learn more to see how your country defines the size of an alcoholic drink.
Photo Credit: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism www.niaaa.nih.gov
References
The global burden of alcohol attributable to drinking alcohol. Accessed July 22, 2023. https://www.thelancet.com/infographics-do/alcohol-cancer
Petticrew M, Maani Hessari N, Knai C, Weiderpass E. How alcohol industry organisations mislead the public about alcohol and cancer. DRUG ALCOHOL REV. 2018;37(3):293-303. doi:10.1111/dar.12596
What Is A Standard Drink? | National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Accessed July 21, 2023. https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/what-standard-drink
