Using Law to Reduce the Cancer Burden of Alcohol

 Law is one of the most effective policy tools to address alcohol-related harm. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends countries reduce alcohol-related harm by introducing pricing, availability and advertising measures, in order to reduce the burden of cancer and other noncommunicable diseases caused by alcohol use.

 

Awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer remains low. To address the limited public awareness of the harms associated with alcohol use, including cancer risk, the WHO has increasingly recommended countries provide consumers with information about the harms associated with alcohol use through measures such as health warning labels on alcohol. According to the WHO, in 2019, less than 40% of countries had government mandated health warnings of any kind on alcohol labels.

 

Next year, Ireland will become the first country in the world to require all prepacked alcohol sold in the country to include the warning that ‘There is a direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers’. The Irish measures are included in comprehensive alcohol control laws introduced in the country which seek to address the enormous burden of public health, social and economic harm caused by alcohol use in Ireland.

 

This presentation will explore why law is a critical tool for addressing the cancer burden of alcohol, including a case study on cancer warning labels in Ireland, and the role of cancer organisations in ensuring cancer prevention is highlighted in alcohol laws around the world.

 

Clare Slattery is a Legal Policy Advisor at the McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer, the only centre in the world dedicated to using legal expertise to prevent cancer and protect those affected by it. Clare’s work supports countries to adopt effective public health laws to prevent noncommunicable diseases, defend those laws from legal challenge, and ensure policy coherence between health, human rights and trade and investment law.

 

The McCabe Centre collaborates with individuals, organisations, and governments to fight cancer and other noncommunicable diseases through its role as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Law and Noncommunicable Disease and a Knowledge Hub of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Based in Melbourne, Clare has a background in public health, international law and legal research.