Alcohol should have labels warning drinkers of cancer risks, charities say

Ireland is to become the first country to include cancer warning labels on alcoholic products and campaigners say the UK should follow suit. Photograph: Carl Dickinson/Alamy

Cans and bottles of beer, wine and spirits should explicitly warn drinkers that alcohol causes cancer, an unprecedented alliance of doctors, charities and public experts have said.

Warning labels would tackle “shockingly low” public awareness in the UK that alcohol is proven to cause seven forms of cancer and 17,000 cases a year of the disease, they claim.