IAS statement on new report “How alcohol industry organisations mislead the public about alcohol and cancer”

Ahead of the release of the new London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine report ‘How alcohol industry organisations mislead the public about alcohol and cancer’, please find the following statement issued by the Institute of Alcohol Studies, below (in bold).

Commenting on the new report that provides documented evidence of how the alcohol industry is misleading the public about the risks associated with alcohol and cancer, Institute of Alcohol Studies Chief Executive Katherine Brown said:

“This report shows that, like the tobacco industry before them, alcohol companies are misleading consumers about the evidence linking their products to cancer.

“It’s extremely worrying that the UK public are not being given independent, honest information about the health risks associated with drinking. There has been very little government communication of the new Chief Medical Officers’ drinking guidelines, and 15 months after their publication we still do not see them printed on labels.

“We cannot rely on a profit-driven industry to promote public health. Consumers have a right to know the truth about alcohol and cancer, so they can make fully informed decisions about their drinking.”

Notes to Editors

The report, “How alcohol industry organisations mislead the public about alcohol and cancer”, by Mark Petticrew, Nason Maani Hessari, Cécile Knai and Elisabete Weiderpass, will be published online in Drug and Alcohol Review at 22:00 6 September 2017

The Institute of Alcohol Studies is an independent institute bringing together evidence, policy and practice from home and abroad to promote and informed debate on alcohol’s impact on society. Our purpose is to advance the use of the best available evidence in public policy decisions on alcohol.

For further information please visit www.ias.org.uk or contact Habib Kadiri (details below).

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Habib Kadiri
Research & Information Officer
Institute of Alcohol Studies
Alliance House
12 Caxton Street
London
SW1H 0QS
Tel: +44 (0)207 222 4001
Follow IAS on Twitter: @InstAlcStud

The Institute of Alcohol Studies is a company limited by guarantee No 05661538 and registered charity No 1112671.