With one of the year’s booziest holidays under revellers’ belts and pledges of a Dry January underway, a University of Victoria institute is launching a new website that allows people to see the impact of drinking on their personal health.
Users of the new website, , can enter their age, sex and how much they drink per week and calculate their individualized risk of several alcohol-related diseases, the cigarette equivalency of their liquor consumption, and minutes of life lost per drink.
Dr. Tim Naimi, director of UVic’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, said one of the things the website aims to do is to keep Canada’s guidelines on alcohol consumption top of mind “because, in general, we’d all be better off if Canadians drank a bit less.”
The website launch comes two years after the work of 20 scientists from 16 institutions was published as Canada’s Guidance on Alcohol and Health, replacing previous guidelines in place since 2011.
The guidance indicates no amount of alcohol is safe and slashes the amount of drinks considered a low health risk for disease to two a week from two a day. The moderate risk zone is three to six drinks a week and high risk seven or more standard drinks per week.
“The safest level is none or very low amounts,” Naimi said. “The science is very consistent that when it comes to health, alcohol is unhealthy, and the less you drink, the better in terms of health.”
Published in January 2023, the updated guidelines make it clear alcohol is a carcinogen associated with several cancers — including breast, colon, rectum, mouth and throat, esophagus, and larynx — as well as heart and liver disease, dementia and lower-respiratory infections.
Naimi, who was on the expert panel that formulated Canada’s new alcohol guidelines, is also on a scientific panel creating similar guidelines for the United States, expected to be published soon.
He hopes the new website empowers Canadian consumers to familiarize themselves with the health risks, costs and calories, “so that they can make informed decisions about their own drinking.”
It helps people calculate and visualize the size of a standard drink, quiz themselves on the myths and reality of alcohol consumption, and find resources to help reduce or quit drinking.
Alcohol is a neurotoxin and can contribute to dementia and other problems that come with aging, Naimi said. “It’s just a good time of year to maybe engage in a little dialogue with oneself,” he said.
The guidelines also suggest those under age 25 — when the development and maturation of the brain’s prefrontal cortex is completed — should delay alcohol use as long as possible.
Drinking at a young age is a strong predictor of lifelong issues with alcohol, risks of premature death and social problems, Naimi said. Regular drinking in high school also increases the risk of developing dementia later in life, he said. A 2018 B.C. Adolescent Health Survey found that 61 per cent of youth ages 12 to 17 who drank alcohol the Saturday prior to the survey reported binge drinking.
Naimi said the federal and provincial governments could do much more for public health.
B.C. Cancer and the Health Ministry launched a public awareness campaign in 2023 that used graphics of beer cans and wine bottles to share statistics on alcohol-related cancers.
Naimi said it was a great campaign but would need to run regularly to make a real impact.
“We have not seen much action,” he said. “The B.C. provincial government would have the ability to mandate labels with some health information … they have not done that yet.”
A can of peas has a label indicating serving sizes, while cigarette packages warn of related cancer risks. Alcohol has neither.
It’s another reason for the website, Naimi said.
“Unfortunately, it seems that in the face of intense lobbying pressure [from the alcohol industry] and very — I hate to say it — weak political leadership, the only thing that really may protect consumers, or at least inform consumers about their health risks and possible benefits of drinking less, is themselves,” he said.
Dr. Réka Gustafson, Island Health’s chief medical health officer, released a report last month highlighting the harms of alcohol and tobacco, suggesting the debate over illicit drugs is taking attention away from the harms of other psychoactive substances.
Alcohol and tobacco consumption is higher in Island Health than elsewhere in the province, Gustafson said.
Alcohol consumption “is the highest cause of hospitalization in our population, yet it is a widely available and often a celebrated, advertised and promoted substance,” she said
The office of the provincial health officer is working on a report to be released later this year with information on alcohol consumption patterns and harms, the new national guidelines and alcohol policy in British Columbia.
Naimi doesn’t think it’s helpful to suggest people shouldn’t drink at all. He said the website is about creating awareness. If people make an informed decision to drink less, great, and if their consumption levels remain the same, that’s fine too — it’s just about having the scientific information, he said.
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