Reply to Surgeon General Warns of Connection Between Alcohol Use and Cancer

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It’s about time they make an announcement about alcohol.  Kids go crazy in college drinking and then it continues into their 20s-30s because it is the social thing to do.  ‘Let’s get drinks!’   Etc.  Yet, it’s the first question the oncologist asks when you initially get diagnosed with cancer.  ‘Do you drink and how much?’  Then, ‘Do you smoke?’  So, they have known for decades that there is a link to cancer.  Both are rough and unnatural to your body.  Just now the U.S. Surgeon General is going to label it.  [/quote]

Younger people are drinking less than previous generations https://time.com/7203140/gen-z-drinking-less-alcohol/
[/quote]

Anecdotally I see this at work. Happy hour is not as popular and even when we have one at work, there is a huge demand for nonalcoholic fun drinks.[/quote]

Everyone is drinking less.  The post war trend of binge drinking that lasted into the 2000s is over.  Even on college campuses drinking is way down.  It’s all for the better.  The high side of moderate drinking and heavy drinking is likely skewing all of these studies in a big way.  There is a level of drinking that is unquestionably bad for you and it’s becoming less and less common.

But the people who insist that it’s 0 or near 0 (2 drinks a month?) are bananas.   They started the same hysteria over lead and asbestos (any amount is toxic and will increase the chance of adverse health effects).  It’s just not true - you have environmental exposure to both substances that don’t involve a statistically significant increase in cancer.  Both substances are highly toxic and the most convincing evidence involve chronic or occupational exposure.  Further studies have shown that lower levels are also hazardous.  And that has been blown out of proportion to say, for example, a 1 time exposure to asbestos insulation makes you at risk for mesothelioma.

Public health professionals need to educate people on the science, not engage in fear based advocacy.  Look at all the stupid shit people still believe about transmitting Covid.  Like all other respiratory viruses it’s transmitted by particles expelled from the lungs and requires 15 minutes+ of direct exposure to the shared air.  COVID isn’t likely (though technically possible to demonstrate in ideal lab environments) to be transmitted via fomites, toilet plume, auto passenger air intakes, etc.  Your chances of getting it in well-ventilated or outdoor spaces, especially with passing contact, is virtually 0.

People have been brainwashed to “follow the science” but the science doesn’t say what they think it says.  They’re following the dumbed down overly simplified cliffs notes version brought to you buy public health officials and their media relations departments who are trying to alter population level health behavior through fear because they think everyone is too stupid to understand the actual studies. [/quote]

Amen! 
I will argue one point: there's one downside to the decrease in college drinking: the cannabis lobby has led those like you describe above to believe that it's perfectly safe. We are going to say an entire generation go through a painful withdrawal from regular cannabis use when they hit real adulthood. It's simply a bad idea to use pot every day. [/quote]

Totally.  CBD, THC, hemp products, and marijuana overall is much more hazardous than people acknowledge.  The idea that it’s generally safe at all levels has permeated society.  Smoking marijuana is as dangerous related to lung cancer as smoking tobacco - perhaps it’s “better” because very few people inhale the equivalent amount of smoke as a pack of cigarettes or something. Marijuana isn’t chemically addictive but it is addictive.  It also has an adverse impact on your brain function.  Somehow people have decided that “stoners” aren’t a thing. The related products like CBD and edibles are also hazardous, but again, the long term health impact is largely a function of dose/frequency.[/quote]

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