Alcohol has a ubiquitous presence in our culture – from advertisements during sporting events to parties at and near college campuses. It is part of a culture that generally looks down upon excessive drunkenness and its effects on both the individual and the public. But still we seem to accept the substance. We assume that everybody will “drink responsibly” because there is plenty of information that tells us alcohol can be corrosive to our health and well-being if we use it irresponsibly.
What if that wasn’t the case? What if I said that you have probably not been getting the whole story about alcohol?
Most current public health efforts in relation to alcohol focus on more immediate impacts, such as risky behavior and drunk driving. It is fair to say that most are well aware of these risks, including those who drink on a regular basis. However, few people are aware of the growing consensus in the medical and public health communities that alcohol is strongly correlated with cancer. In fact, the risk is so great that the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which is a part of the World Health Organization, rates alcohol as a Class I carcinogen, equivalent to tobacco smoke. A report generated by both the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research states, “The evidence does not show a clear level of consumption of alcoholic drinks below which there is no increase in the risk of cancer it causes.” In other words, every time you consume a drink, you increase your chances of disease slightly more than if you hadn’t consumed alcohol at all.
And the evidence does not stop there. According to the International Journal of Cancer, 3.6 percent of all cancer cases and 3.5 percent of all cancer deaths could be the result of alcohol intake. It doesn’t sound alarming at first, but when you consider the numerous potential causes of cancer that exist, the number becomes more striking.
Countless other studies have determined links between alcohol and specific types of cancer. It is this growing heap of literature on the subject that is further convincing health professionals that alcohol can be incredibly damaging to health long after one consumes it.
Perhaps I wouldn’t be so concerned if I was assured that my peers drink alcohol in moderation or not at all. For a good portion of them, this is certainly the case, but for many others, getting drunk is a fairly regular occurrence. I am concerned that people are engaging in certain behaviors without complete knowledge of the long-term consequences for their health.
In writing this article, I do not mean to come across as an authority figure telling people how I think they should live their lives. In fact, I hadn’t known any of this information until quite recently. I was so shocked at how poorly distributed this information was that I felt I had to get the word out. I strongly believe that people are entitled to know about the risks and rewards of everything that they consume, especially college students, who are making decisions that could affect them for the rest of their lives.
Alcohol has existed almost as long as human civilization has, so I don’t expect people to completely stop consuming it once informed of its risks, in the same way smokers have continued to persist. However, alcohol is much more dangerous to our long-term health than we make it out to be; ignorance is no longer an option.
Kevin Smith is a Collegian contributor. He can be reached at [email protected].
