Gulping more than a pint of alcohol poses a serious risk to the people of European countries. As per a recent study, one in every 10 men and three in every 10 women are affected by cancer due to excessive consumption of alcohol beyond the prescribed safety limit. If statistics are to be believed, alcoholism has claimed lives of 304,000 people in Europe in 2008.

With the scar of alcoholism percolating in the turf of seven major European nations namely France, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Greece, Germany and Denmark, Madlen Schütze, first author of the study and epidemiologist at German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbruecke, claimed, “Our data show that many cancer cases could have been avoided if alcohol consumption is limited to two alcoholic drinks per day in men and one alcoholic drink per day in women, which are the recommendations of many health organizations”.

Factoring the findings of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (EPIC) Study and representative alcohol consumption data compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO), the team asserted that controlled consumption of alcohol can contain the risk of cancer to a large extent.