Oral Cancer Tied to U.K. Binge Drinking Plague

Cases of oral cancer have risen sharply among middle-aged Britons since the mid-1990s, and health experts place the blame on binge drinking and a surge in alcohol consumption in the U.K., the Guardian reported Aug. 11.

Cancer Research UK reported that oral-cancer diagnoses have risen 28 percent among men in their 40s and 24 percent among women of the same age. Experts said the trend is likely caused by alcohol use, not smoking, and called for stronger warnings on alcohol containers.

“These latest figures are really alarming,” said Hazel Nunn, health information manager for Cancer Research UK. “For people in their 40s, it seems that other factors are also contributing to this jump in oral-cancer rates. Alcohol consumption has doubled since the 1950s and the trend we are now seeing is likely to be linked to Britain’s continually rising drinking levels.”

“These figures demonstrate once again that people are being struck down at ever younger ages with alcohol-related illnesses,” added Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians. “There is an urgent need to rethink how we communicate the risks of misuse. The most logical way of getting this across would be through standard warning labels as they do with tobacco products.”