'Nanny state': Lawmakers roll their eyes as surgeon general warns of booze-cancer link

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has issued an advisory linking the consumption of alcohol to cancer, and is recommending that risk be added to warning labels on liquor sold in the United States — but it's getting some sharp pushback from a bipartisan group in Congress, NOTUS reported on Friday.

Many of those lawmakers are members of the so-called Congressional Wine Caucus, a group founded by vineyard owners that advocates for the interests of the wine industry.

“I’ve been around long enough to see surgeon general recommendations come and go,” said Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), one of the founders of the Wine Caucus. “There’s been no end to the number of items that have been pointed out to possibly be causing cancer, and if you subscribe to all those, you wouldn’t eat, drink anything, you wouldn’t do anything.”

Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA), also a Wine Caucus member and a medical physician, said, “I think just looking at the science there, and coming from the state of California, I think a glass of wine or two isn’t a bad thing.”

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Meanwhile, another Wine Caucus member with a medical background, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), said this recommendation put America at risk of being a "nanny state," and said, “These studies are very complicated."

"I’m old enough to remember when there was a study thinking that if you drank coffee, you’d decrease your risk of pancreatic cancer. Now no one actually thinks that anymore. So I’m willing to take a little bit of a wait-and-see attitude," he said.

New research backed by the National Institutes of Health has shown increasing evidence linking alcohol consumption with cancer, and Murthy's new report indicates the risk for some types of cancer increases even for drinking habits considered to be in moderation.

But bipartisan resistance from lawmakers has been sharp, said NOTUS.

"In October, more than 100 Democrats and Republicans signed a letter urging Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack to suspend an alcohol intake and health study that was set to be considered in the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans," the report said.