Risk of Cancer from a Bottle of Wine Equivalent to 10 Cigarettes

by Mohamed Fathima S on March 31, 2019 at 3:21 PM

The risk of cancer from drinking a bottle of wine is equal to the same extent as smoking ten cigarettes, finds a new study. The study published in BMC Public Health aimed at comparing the risk of cancer from drinking alcohol to smoking cigarettes and the findings came up with a shocking piece of data for women.

For men, drinking a bottle of wine a week had a similar risk of smoking five cigarettes. Since women are at an increased risk of developing breast cancer (14%) in their lifetime due to alcohol consumption, the ill-effects of alcohol are even higher for them. Researchers at the University Hospital Southampton, Bangor University and Southampton University have found that one bottle or ten units of wine increased the lifetime risk of cancer for men non-smokers by 1 percent and 1.4 percent for female non-smokers.

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‘Consumption of alcohol possesses increased cancer risk to individuals with a heightened risk for women.’

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The study lead author Dr. Theresa Hydes said: 𨧻t is well established that heavy drinking is linked to cancer of the mouth, throat, voice box, gullet, bowel, liver, and breast. Yet, in contrast to smoking, this is not widely understood by the public. We hope that by using cigarettes as the comparator, we could communicate this message more effectively to help individuals make more informed lifestyle choices.�

However, Brigid Simmonds from the British Beer and Pub Association called it an absurd study which does little to educate people. But, this is not an excuse to entirely consider alcohol a safe option compared to smoking. By comparing weighing drinking on the same scale as smoking might result in reduced consumption of alcohol.

Source: Medindia