The alcohol industry is misleading consumers with distorted and distracting health messages that downplay any risk of cancer, researchers claim. The industry is using “distortion” strategies to minimise evidence, in activities that have parallels with those of the tobacco industry, according to a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Researchers analysed information relating to cancer on the websites and documents of almost 30 alcohol industry organisations between September and December last year, finding that most showed “some sort of distortion or misrepresentation” of evidence. The industry presented the relationship between alcohol and cancer as complex, implying that there was no evidence of a consistent or independent link, the study, published in the journal Drug and…

Source: The Times September 07, 2017 23:15 UTC