Scientists identify a cancer-causing ingredient in alcohol

Toronto, March 21:Acetaldehyde, a chemical responsible for the hangover effects of drinking, can also lead heavy drinkers to cancerdefine, warns a new study by researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto and researchers at the Chemical and Veterinary Investigation Laboratory Karlsruhe (CVUA) in Germany.

Too much alcohol consumption has long been seen to increase the risk of cancerdefine, but the way it causes cancer is not completely understood.

Now a joint team of German and Toronto researchers says that a chemical called acetaldehyde in alcoholic beverages plays a significant role in the development of certain types of cancers in humans. The team estimates that acetaldehyde can elevate the risk of cancer to one in 1,000 people.

"It was always known alcohol leads to cancer, but it was not clear what ingredient in the alcohol was leading to cancer until we identified a certain chemical substance, acetaldehyde, as one of the major contributors to cancer in humans," said the lead Toronto scientist, Dr. Jurgen Rehm, of CAMH.

The study findings suggest that drinking alcohol is the greatest risk factor for acetaldehyde-related cancer, and also warns that heavy drinkers are more prone to have far too much acetaldehyde in their systems due to exposure from multiple sources.

Acetaldehyde, the organic chemical which is widely present in the environment, occurs naturally in fruit, coffee, bread, and many other compounds thus is inhaled from the air and tobacco smoke, ingested via alcoholic beverages and foods.

Acetaldehyde is produced in the human body during the metabolism of alcoholic beverages. Consuming alcohol in small amounts doesn’t harm human health, but excessive amount of alcohol consumption could allow acetaldehyde accumulate in human system, leading the drunker to suffer headache, nausea and a general feeling of misery.

The researchers carried out a risk assessment study in which they found that the average exposure to acetaldehyde from alcoholic beverages resulted in a lifetime cancer risk of 7.6 per 10,000.

"The risk for acetaldehyde in alcohol is a risk that we would not accept in our drinking water, or soil or other environmental exposures. It may seem to be a low risk of one per 1,000 at risk of dying of this disease, but it's quite high," Rehm said.

"We're calling on the government to take notice and act on this study to change the amount of acetaldehyde in alcohol. It's a risk to public health and whatever we can do to lower the risk of cancer is good for our society," Rehm said.

The CAMH/CVUA study findings are published in the journal Addiction.