The study, led by Michael J. Thun, MD, director of analytic epidemiology for the American Cancer Society, included approximately 490,000 people (250,000 men, 238,000 women) aged 30 to 104 who participated in Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS II), the ACS nationwide prospective study of more than one million people begun in 1982. The researchers related alcohol consumption reported in 1982 to death rates from specific conditions and to all causes during nine years of followup, adjusting for smoking and other risk factors.

Alcohol consumption was strongly associated with increased death rates from cirrhosis and alcoholism and from cancers of the mouth, esophagus, pharynx, larynx, and liver combined. Death rates from these conditions were three to seven times as high among both men and women who reported at least four drinks a day as among nondrinkers. Mortality from external causes (mainly unintentional injuries and suicide) was also 30 percent higher in men drinking at this level than among nondrinkers. The death rate from breast cancer was 30 percent higher among women reporting at least one drink daily than among nondrinkers.

In contrast, the death rates from all cardiovascular diseases combined were 30 to 40 percent lower among both men and women who had at least one drink daily than among nondrinkers, with little relation to the level of drinking.

" One goal of the study was to examine the balance of these potential risks and benefits at different ages and in different subgroups, " says Dr. Thun. " For most men and women, age 30 and above, overall death rates were lowest at about one drink daily. These findings wouldn't apply, however, to people under age 30 for whom automobile injuries and violence pose a more immediate, larger hazard than heart attacks. "

" The good effects of alcohol were five times smaller than the bad effects of tobacco, " says Richard Peto, of Oxford University, a co-author of the study. " Moderate drinkers had death rates one fifth lower than nondrinkers, but smokers had double the nonsmoker death rate. "

Several consensus groups have concluded that moderate alcohol consumption reduces overall cardiovascular risk, but it is not known how long moderate alcohol consumption must continue to produce this benefit. Because alcohol has been shown to increase risk for certain types of cancers, the American Cancer Society recommends that individuals limit their consumption of alcoholic beverages, if they drink at all. Drinking more than two drinks daily, especially combined with smoking, using snuff, and chewing tobacco, greatly increases the risk of cancers of the oral cavity, esophagus, and larynx.

" When all is said and done, smoking poses the really large hazard for death in middle age, " says Clark Heath, Jr., MD, a co-author of the study and vice president of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research for the American Cancer Society.

Other co-authors of the study include Jane H. Monaco, MS, and S. Jane Henley, BA, of the Department of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research, American Cancer Society; Richard Doll, Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit, University of Oxford, England; and Alan D. Lopez, PhD, Programme on Substance Abuse, World Health Organization.

The American Cancer Society is the nationwide, community-based, voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and service. For more information about cancer or the American Cancer Society and its programs, contact your local American Cancer Society or call 1-800-ACS-2345.



Joann Schellenbach
National Director Media Relations
American Cancer Society
212-382-2169
jschelle@cancer.org