If we were to randomly pick a number of people off the street and ask for their views about the effects of drinking alcohol, we would almost certainly be told that it is mainly a good thing. Its abuse would be decried but, generally speaking, alcohol is likely to be seen as a fairly pleasant and innocuous substance if consumed ‘in moderation’, with possible beneficial effects on ‘the heart’ and ‘blood circulation’ – as snippets and articles in the print media frequently point out.

So the final judgement of the man in the street would quite likely be that, on the whole, alcohol in decent amounts tends to have a beneficial effect on health.

But would science agree? What does it really have to say about alcohol and its effect on the human body?

While the true connection between alcohol and cardiovascular health merits greater in-depth analysis – many studies are now questioning the once-cherished belief that a drink or two a day will reduce the chances of a heart attack or stroke – recent and not-so-recent studies have thrown up a sinister link between alcohol and cancer.

That there is a connection between even low levels of alcohol consumption and breast cancer has been known for decades.

Even the supposedly ‘safe’ limits enthusiastically promoted for many years by health authorities and agencies all over Europe came with a proviso that they were not valid for women with a family or personal history of breast cancer.

Even small amounts, say, one drink per day, were known to be linked to a bigger chance of contracting breast cancer.

Other than that, however, little mention was made of the mounting evidence that alcohol is heavily implicated in several other types of cancer.

Cancer is the second-most important cause of death in the EU; about 2.5 million people are diagnosed with this condition in the region each year.

Amongst people aged 15-64 years living in the EU in 2004, eight per cent of all male and six per cent of all female cancer deaths were attributable to alcohol.

According to the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, alcohol is a causal agent for cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colorectum and breast. Note the term ‘causal it is not simply a question of a correlation between alcohol consumption and cancer.

In a considerable number of cases, cancer is the consequence of the decision to drink alcohol.

There is a dose-response relationship between cancer risk and alcohol consumption, that is to say the more one drinks, the greater the possibility that one will contract the condition.

A seminal study carried out in 2004 showed that the relative risk for cancer increases according to amount drunk daily. Compared to non-drinkers, those who consume 20 grams of alcohol every day experience a 19 per cent increase in risk for liver cancer, 25 per cent for breast cancer, 39 per cent for oesophageal cancer, 43 per cent for cancer of the larynx and 86 per cent for cancers of the mouth and pharynx.

If one partakes of four alcoholic drinks (40 grams) a day, one at least doubles the risk in practically every case. If one smokes as well as drinks the chances of contracting some cancers can be said to soar.

Translating the above into more meaningful equivalents, drinks in Malta are assumed to contain 8-10 grams of absolute alcohol. Therefore, 20 grams would be roughly equivalent to two half-pint bottles of local beer, two bar tots of spirits or two small glasses of wine.

There does not seem to be a drinking threshold below which one may drink safe in the knowledge that the alcohol consumed will not raise one’s cancer risk. Small amounts will raise the possibilities one will incur cancer.

So, insofar as cancer risk is concerned, it appears that the safest advice health authorities can give is to drink no alcohol.

This is what, for example, the World Cancer Research Foundation recommends.

However, given that it is still unclear whether alcohol has a cardio-protective effect or not, there are those who would still maintain that light drinking will not have a net negative effect on health.

According to this line of reasoning, light drinking would, as it were, compensate for the increased cancer risk by decreasing the chances of cardiac problems.

WHO itself believes there is evidence that half a drink (five grams) a day will indeed protect middle-aged people against the risk of a heart attack but, mindful of the other risks the consumption of alcohol can carry, WHO advises that we would be better off stopping smoking, losing weight and exercising rather than drinking even small amounts.

It, therefore, appears that, in terms of cancer prevention, we would be better off not drinking any alcohol at all.

If, for some reason, we decide we do wish to drink we should make sure we drink as little and as infrequently as possible.

The old slogan used by WHO – The Less The Better – in conjunction with its advice on alcohol use seems to be particularly apt in this context.

Manuel Mangani is manager of Aġenzija Sedqa