anchor: Alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the U.S.

Followed tobacco use and obesity.

It causes 20,000 deaths each year.

Alcoholic beverages have a -- should have a warning about those risks.

Welcome back.

>> Thank you so much.

Good to be with you again.

Anchor: There were some things that stood out to me from your findings.

Only 45% of American adults are aware that consuming alcohol increases the risk of developing cancer.

How did those numbers strike you?

Why is awareness so low?

>> It was very striking for me when I saw this.

It became very clear to me that we have to tell people what the data is telling us.

There is a link between alcohol consumption and cancer risk.

We put out this advisory: Not only for more public education but a change to the alcohol warning label.

There are warnings about drinking while pregnant and driving and operating heavy machinery.

Those things have actually soaked into the general understanding of what we should do with alcohol.

People should know about the cancer risk as well.

I have called for reassessment of the guideline limits around alcohol.

Currently people are told they can drink one drink a day, two drinks if you are a man.

Anchor: Those are federal recommendations.

>> That is correct.

Even within those limits, the risk of cancer starts to increase.

Those need to be Reese -- reassessed and revised.

Anchor: Do you know what the limits should be?

>> They should be revised down.

Overall what the guidelines say is look at the overall impact.

Here it is worth noting that many people were led to believe over the years that alcohol is good for your heart.

We know that story is a lot more complicated.

While there may be some benefits to some types of heart disease with moderate drinking, that is still being investigated and debated.

There are other types of heart disease like heart failure and high blood pressure itself where the risk increases with drinking.

We know for certain with a high degree of confidence that there is a link between alcohol and cancer.

Anchor: Tcu needs for alcohol to be more aggressively regulated?

>> I think there certainly needs to be much more public awareness.

We need to think about how the overall impact of alcohol should factor into decisions of Fouts how we encourage consumption.

This is not to a regulatory matter.

From a cultural perspective, we have to think about the messages that we send to people through movies about, other media that alcohol is the right way to deal with stress or the right way to deal with anxiety.

I hear from people who sometimes say, this is just something that I need to cope at a very difficult time.

I get that we live in stressful times.

When you hear data like what we put out today that alcohol causes cancer, it is an important truth.

I think a lot of that has to shift.

What I want people to know is less alcohol consumption leads to less cancer risk.

If you are drinking a couple of times a week, that is safer than drinking every day.

Anchor: We know new warning labels would require congressional action.

Do you have any indication that this is something they would like to push through?

>> I'm certainly open to talking to anyone.

Typically cancer prevention has been something with broad support.

A lot of times people get cancer and we don't know why it has happened.

I've seen the devastation it causes in peoples lives and in families.

Here we have an opportunity to resist -- reduce the risk.

In 1964 when the surgeon general released the first report on tobacco, the next year congress followed up to pass legislation to put a warning label on cigarette boxes.

They have the power to do this now.

Anchor: Always good to have you here.

Thank you for coming by.

Reporter: Thank you for having me.

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