Bottle of wine a week equals 5-10 cigarettes for cancer risk, study shows
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FOX 35 ORLANDO - Wine lovers, listen up! A new study shows that drinking a bottle of wine per week is the same as smoking five to ten cigarettes per week, as both increase the risk of developing cancer.
A BMC Public Health study was published in March 2019 regarding the cancer risks between alcohol and tobacco between genders. It explored whether moderate levels of alcohol would increase the risk of cancer, in comparison to how low levels of smoking increased cancer risk.
They found that one bottle of wine per week was associated with an increased absolute lifetime cancer risk for non-smokers of 1.0% (men) and 1.4% (women). The overall absolute increase in cancer risk for one bottle of wine per week equals that of five (men) or ten (women) cigarettes per week.
They also found that gender differences resulted from levels of moderate drinking leading up to an 0.8% absolute risk of breast cancer in female non-smokers.
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The BMC Public Health study concluded by stating that one bottle of wine per week is associated with an increased absolute lifetime risk of alcohol-related concerns in women, driven by breast cancer. It is equivalent to the increased absolute cancer risk associated with ten cigarettes per week.
They believe that these findings will help communicate that moderate levels of drinking are an important health risk for women. And the risk for men is also of note, as it is equivelent to smoking five cigarettes per week.
This story was written in Orlando, Florida.
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