Study Shows 20,000 Cancer Deaths Per Year Are Caused By Alcohol

Study Shows 20,000 Cancer Deaths Per Year Are Caused By Alcohol

A study published in the “American Journal of Public Health" offers data that shows nearly 3.5 percent of all cancer deaths in the U.S. are caused by alcohol consumption.

While smoking gets a lot of attention in regards to its death toll, the high and growing number of deaths caused by alcohol abuse are just now beginning to become known.

The World Health Organization has named alcohol as the third biggest risk factor when it comes to diseases, causing a large number of neuropsychiatric disorders, heart disease, liver cirrhosis and various types of cancer like mouth, neck, liver, colon, breast or many others.

Researchers looked at U.S. mortality rates and coupled them with deaths that came from the most common types of carcinoma associated with alcohol consumption. Their efforts have shown that between 18,000 and 21,000 alcohol attributable deaths happened in 2009.

Those numbers make up between 3.2 and 3.5 percent of all deaths related to the terrible disease. Researchers have also shown that alcohol related disease can take away an average of 18 potential years from a person’s life. People who consume an average of 1.5 drinks a day made up nearly 30 percent of deaths.

While drinking moderately has always been promoted, cancer researchers say that alcohol is a carcinogen, and that people should be aware of that too, before deciding the amount of alcohol they would consume.

Posted by George Daniels on Sunday February 17 2013, 3:20 AM EDT. Ref: KTVA. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0