• Posted June 23, 2026

Most Americans Unaware Of Link Between Alcohol And Cancer — And Aren't Interested In Spreading The Word, Either

Fewer than half of Americans understand that booze is a cancer-causing substance along the lines of known carcinogens like tobacco, asbestos and formaldehyde, a new study says.

Alcohol has been listed as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer since the late 1980s, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

But only about 2 out of 5 people (41%) are aware that drinking increases a person’s cancer risk, researchers reported Monday at the Research Society on Alcohol’s annual meeting in San Antonio.

A ban on alcohol ads or a warning label on bottles and cans might improve awareness, but a second study presented Sunday at the meeting found mixed public support for such measures, researchers said.

About 34% of Americans would support a ban on outdoor alcohol ads such as those found on billboards or bus stops, according to the study. About 62% of folks surveyed said they would support adding cancer warnings to alcohol containers.

“Alcohol use is common in the U.S., given that 72% of Americans report consumption of one or more drinks per week,” researcher Sanjay Shete said in a news release. He’s a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center who was involved in both studies.

“Yet alcohol use [also] increases the risk of seven types of cancer: breast, colorectal, esophagus, liver, mouth, throat, and voice box, and contributes to nearly 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 deaths each year,” Shete said.

For the first study, researchers analyzed data gathered by a national survey in 2019 and 2024 involving nearly 16,000 people.

About 41% of Americans knew of the link between alcohol and cancer in both 2019 and 2024, researchers found.

The number of people who said alcohol wasn’t linked to cancer declined from 26% to 24% between 2019 and 2024, while those who weren’t sure one way or the other increased from 34% to 36%, the study showed.

In the second study, the research team investigated ways to better spread the word of the cancer risks of booze, based on responses to a National Cancer Institute survey on health information trends.

They found mixed support for policies that would highlight alcohol’s link to cancer, depending largely on personal philosophy.

For example, conservatives were 88% more likely to oppose such policies compared to liberals. Overall, those who thought alcohol had no effect on cancer risk were three times more likely to oppose them.

The results also showed that many Americans haven’t landed on a position regarding the matter.

“It is important to note that about 42.8% of liberals, 49% of moderates and 43.6% of conservatives neither support nor oppose the banning of outdoor advertising of alcohol,” Shete said.

He said this neutrality could owe to a lack of awareness that there is link between alcohol consumption and cancer risk.

“I believe the first step towards gathering bipartisan support is to increase the awareness that data showing the causal link between alcohol consumption and cancer risk is based on rigorous and reproducible scientific methods,” Shete said.

“Cancer does not discriminate based on ideology. We need to move away from political ideology to pursue our common goal of eliminating cancer,” he concluded.

Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The National Cancer Institute has more on alcohol and cancer risk.

SOURCES: University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, news release, June 21, 2026; Research Society on Alcohol, abstract, June 22, 2026