Drinking Linked To 20,000 Cancer Deaths

Alcohol and cancer have long been linked, but now researchers at Boston University have done the math, and they’ve come up with some scary numbers: 20,000 cancer deaths (3.5 percent of all cancer deaths) a year in the U.S. are linked to booze. Futurity reports that the finding is based on an analysis of recent data from the US on alcohol consumption and cancer mortality. The researchers found that breast cancer was the most common cause of alcohol-attributable cancer deaths in women, accounting for approximately 6,000 deaths annually, or about 15 percent of all breast cancer deaths. Cancers of the mouth, throat, and esophagus were common causes of alcohol-attributable cancer mortality in men, resulting in a total of about 6,000 annual deaths. Wait, there’s more bad news: each alcohol-related cancer death accounted for an average of 18 years of potential life lost. And more: average consumption of as little as 1.5 drinks per day or less accounted for 30 percent of all alcohol-attributable cancer deaths. Read more from Boston University.