Alcoholic drinks
The World Health Organization on Monday recommended doubling
alcohol taxes in Europe as a means to prevent nearly 5,000 cancer deaths every
year.
Increasing
taxes on alcoholic beverages is “one of the best measures” to prevent cancer
with a “potentially high impact,” the WHO’s European office said, adding that
countries like Russia and the UK would benefit most.
Alcohol
consumption is causally linked to oral cavity, pharynx, oesophagus, colorectal,
liver, larynx, and female breast cancer, the WHO said.
WHO said
its model projections showed “an estimated 10,700 new cancer cases and 4,850
alcohol-related cancer deaths could be avoided annually in the WHO European
Region by doubling current excise duties on alcoholic beverages?”
This
represents about six percent of new cases and deaths from alcohol-related
cancers in the WHO’s European region, which comprises 53 countries and
territories and includes Russia and several Central Asian nations.
The
WHO’s regional office said it estimates that 180,000 cases and 85,000 deaths
every year “were estimated to be caused by alcohol”.
For the
WHO, current levels of alcohol taxation remain “low” in many parts of Europe,
particularly in the 27-nation European Union.
Russia,
the UK and Germany would save the most lives by adopting the tax measure, with
725, 680 and 525 deaths averted respectively, according to the model published
in The Lancet, the British medical journal.
It said
a doubling of taxes would in particular help in preventing deaths from breast
cancer (1,000 deaths per year) and colorectal cancer (1,700).
The WHO
said 4.8 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed in Europe in 2020.
(AFP)
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