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Comment by andybak | Hacker News Reader

> They found that out of 100,000 non-drinkers, 914 would develop an alcohol-related health problem such as cancer or suffer an injury.

> But an extra four people would be affected if they drank one alcoholic drink a day.

The headline is typical for this kind of health reporting.

"X is not safe at any level" is like arguing about the slope of a curve without discussing it's baseline or scale.

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Note: Their definition of a non-drinker is anyone who averages less than 0.8 standard drinks per day (~4 beers / glasses of wine per week).

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

> an alcohol-related health problem such as cancer

Since when alcohol consumption is accepted as a direct (not a risk factor, but directly responsible of) cause of cancer?

for a while. Alcohol is a mutagen (and so is its metabolite, acetaldehyde) and it particularly increases the risk of cancer of tissue it comes into direct contact with. Esophageal, oral cavity, stomach and liver.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_and_cancer

Thank you for the link! I did not know that it was classified as a direct cause of cancer, I was in the opinion of it being a risk factor only.

What's also not clear from the article is whether they controlled for other factors. People who average five drinks a day almost certainly have lives that are messed up in other ways. Did they have more cancer because they drank more, or did the thing that caused them to have cancer also cause them to drink more?

Yes. A 0.4% increase in health problems is what most people would consider "basically safe". How does that compare to effects from other bad dietary habits many people have. For instance:

* eating fast food once or twice a week

* eating processed meat a few times a week

* eating refined sugar

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