In our latest blog, Dr Catherine White explains the importance of alcohol health risk labelling and the consumers’ right to know about the links between alcohol and cancer.
When you buy breakfast cereal, you will find detailed nutritional information and ingredient lists. But when you pick up a bottle of wine or beer, you are left in the dark about one of its most serious health risks: cancer.
In January 2025, the US Surgeon General made headlines by calling for cancer warning labels on alcohol products, declaring that “alcohol is a well established, preventable cause of cancer” (Maani, 2025). This has reignited conversations about the right to know about the health risks associated with products you purchase.
The World Health Organization (WHO) classified alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen back in 1988, putting it in the same category as tobacco and asbestos. Research shows alcohol causes at least seven types of cancer, contributing to over 741,000 cancer cases globally in 2020 alone (Devi, 2025). In the European Union, one in nineteen adults die from alcohol-related causes, with three out of every 10 of these deaths due to cancer (Global Health Observatory, 2023).
Here’s what’s truly alarming: many of these cancers occur in moderate drinkers. Over one-third of alcohol-related breast cancers happen in women drinking just 200ml of wine per day (Rumgay et al., 2021; Sung et al., 2021).
Despite overwhelming evidence, public awareness remains dangerously low:
• Only 1 in 10 people are aware of the link between alcohol and cancer (AHA, 2020)
• 80% of adults don’t know the calorie content in alcoholic drinks (Action on Sugar, 2020)
• Just 23% know recommended weekly drinking limits (YouGov for AFS, 2018)
Against this backdrop, Alcohol Focus Scotland (AFS) and the Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA) are conducting research to evaluate the current state of alcohol labelling in the UK. This will provide crucial insights into how effectively the alcohol industry is communicating health risks to consumers. It will examine health-related information on labels of best-selling alcohol brands across the UK, with a particular focus on health warnings – and cancer warnings – specifically. This study will assess not only the prevalence of health information but also its legibility and prominence. Concerning examples have been identified previously, where information was difficult to see, used poor colour combinations, or was mixed in with recycling symbols, making labels effectively invisible (AHA, 2022). Previous reviews have demonstrated how industry self-regulation has consistently failed to meet public health needs, with the 2022 AHA review finding that 97% of products did not warn of health harms related to drinking, with only one displaying a cancer warning (AHA, 2022).
Importantly, this new research also examines the prevalence of health and nutrition-related claims on alcohol products. Evidence from Australia has found that products with low sugar claims are perceived as healthier and less harmful than identical products without claims, demonstrating how marketing can create a dangerous “health halo” around alcohol products (Yusoff et al., 2024; Plasek et al., 2020).
In stark contrast to mandatory labelling requirements for all other food and drink products, which are independently regulated, alcohol labelling currently relies on voluntary adherence to UK Government and industry guidance. This self-regulation has proven to be ineffective. Consumers deserve the same level of health information about alcohol as they receive about every other consumable product, including clear, prominent warnings about cancer risks that could save lives.
While the UK clings to failed voluntary measures, other countries are taking decisive action. Ireland will become the first nation to legally mandate comprehensive cancer warnings on alcohol in 2026 (Devi, 2025). Norway has advanced similar plans, addressing alcohol’s links to sleep problems, dementia, heart disease, cancer, and liver conditions (Nordic Alcohol and Drug Policy Network, 2024).
However, progress faces significant industry resistance. Research by Cott et al. (2025) documented how alcohol industry actors employ familiar tactics from the tobacco playbook, including challenging the scientific evidence, emphasising economic impacts, and positioning themselves as responsible public health partners. The alcohol industry has been found to use “pink washing” tactics, placing breast cancer campaign ribbons on alcohol products despite alcohol being a known breast cancer risk factor (Maani, 2025).
The WHO now explicitly recommends cancer health warnings on alcohol labels, recognising that cancer-specific warnings are more relevant and likely to prompt important conversations about risk (WHO, 2025). Studies show that health warnings can be effective, with cancer-specific warnings on alcohol products increasing attention, fear, and perceived message effectiveness while boosting intentions to reduce drinking (Massey et al., 2025). Systematic reviews confirm that alcohol health warnings substantially decrease alcohol use and sales while improving understanding of risk (Zuckerman et al, 2024; Joyce et al, 2024).
The research being conducted by AFS and AHA will provide crucial evidence for policymakers considering mandatory labelling requirements. The new Labour Government’s pledge to deliver a ‘prevention first’ approach presents a new opportunity to progress on mandatory labelling (Department of Health & Social Care, 2025). With mounting international evidence and growing public health consensus, the question is not whether alcohol should carry cancer warnings, but how quickly governments will act to protect consumers’ right to know about the products they purchase.
SHAAP Blogposts are published with the permission of the authors. The views expressed are solely the authors’ own and do not necessarily represent the views of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP).
References
Action on Sugar. (2020). Sugar content of ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages. Retrieved from: https://www.actiononsugar.org/media/actiononsugar/Alcohol-Survey-Report.pdf
Alcohol Health Alliance. (2020). Drinking in the dark: how alcohol labelling fails consumers. Retrieved from: DRINKING-IN-THE-DARK.pdf
Alcohol Health Alliance. (2022). Contents unknown: how alcohol labelling still fails consumers. Retrieved from: https://www.ahauk.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Labelling_Report_2022_.pdf
Cott, É., Dunaiceva, J., White, P., Neely, R. A., & Lesch, M. (2025). Labelling the debate: a thematic analysis of alcohol industry submissions to the EU consultation on alcohol health warnings in Ireland. Globalization and Health, 21(34), https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-025-01126-3
Department of Health & Social Care. (2025). Road to recovery: the government’s 2025 mandate to NHS England. Retrieved from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/road-to-recovery-the-governments-2025-mandate-to-nhs-england/road-to-recovery-the-governments-2025-mandate-to-nhs-england
Devi, S. (2025). Should alcohol carry cancer warning labels? The Lancet, 405, 366-367.
Global Health Observatory. (2023). Global health estimates: leading causes of death: cause-specific mortality, 2000–2021. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Joyce, K. M., Davidson, M., Manly, E., Stewart, S. H., & Al-Hamdani, M. (2023). A systematic review on the impact of alcohol warning labels. Journal of Addictive Diseases, 42(3), 170–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/10550887.2023.2210020
Maani, N. (2025). Alcohol labelling and cancer: a way to empower consumers despite industry opposition. BMJ, 388, r176, doi:10.1136/bmj.r176
Massey, Z. B., Anbari, A. B., Wang, N., Adediran, A., Lawrie, L. L., Martinez, P., & McCarthy, D. (2025). Developing and testing health warnings about alcohol and risk for breast cancer: Results from a national experiment with young adult women in the United States. Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research, 00, 1-13, https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.70003
Nordic Alcohol and Drug Policy Network. (2024). Actis on health labelling: “This is what we’ve been waiting for”. Retrieved from: https://www.nordicalcohol.org/post/actis-on-health-labelling-this-is-what-we-ve-been-waiting for#:~:text=In%20Norway%2C%20alcohol%20is%20the,health%20warnings%20on%20alcohol%20products
Plasek, B., Lakner, Z., & Temesi, Á. (2020). Factors that Influence the Perceived Healthiness of Food-Review. Nutrients, 12(6), 1881. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12061881
Rumgay, H., Shield, K., Charvat, J., Ferrari, P., Obot, I., et al. (2021). Global burden of cancer in 2020 attributable to alcohol consumption: a population-based study. Lancet Oncol, 22(8), 1071–80, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(21)00279-5
Sung, H., Ferlay, J., Siegel, R. L., Laversanne, M., Soerjomataram, I., Jemal, A., et al. (2021). Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin, 71(3), 209–49, https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21660
World Health Organization. (2025). Alcohol health warning labels: a public health perspective for Europe. Retrieved from: 9789289061681-eng.pdf
Online survey of 1,019 people aged 18+ in Scotland, conducted 12-15 November 2018 by YouGov for AFS. The figures are representative of all adults in Scotland (aged 18+).
Yusoff A, Sträuli B, Jongenelis M, Bowden J, Bartram A, Brownbill A, Jones A, Norris C, Stafford J, O’Brien P, and Pettigrew S. Sugar and carbohydrate claims affect perceptions of alcohol healthiness. Report prepared by The George Institute for Global Health, November 2024.
Zuckermann, A. M. E., Morissette, K., Boland, L., Garcia, A. J., Domingo, F. R., Stockwell, T., & Hobin, E. (2024). The effects of alcohol container labels on consumption behaviour, knowledge, and support for labelling: a systematic review. The Lancet. Public health, 9(7), e481–e494. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(24)00097-5
Dr Catherine White
Senior Policy Coordinator
Dr Catherine White is a Senior Policy Coordinator at Alcohol Focus Scotland, the national charity dedicated to preventing and reducing alcohol-related harm in Scotland. She is a Health Psychologist, with an interest in behaviour change, reducing health inequities and improving health literacy, supporting individuals to play an active role in improving their own health.