Alcohol is a leading cause of cancer, a risk that should be clearly labeled on drinks Americans consume, the top doctor in the US has said. The US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy made the proposal as research and evidence mounts about the effects that alcohol has on human health. His suggestion for a label would require approval from the US Congress. Americans should be better informed about the link between alcohol and cancer, in particular, Murthy argues, noting that alcohol consumption was to blame for nearly one million preventable cancer cases in the US over the last decade. About 20,000 people die every year from those alcohol-related cancer cases, he said. Bottles of beer, wine and liquor already carry warning labels that say pregnant women should not drink alcohol and that alcohol consumption can impair a person's ability to drive a car. But Murthy's proposed label would go even further, raising awareness about the risk for cancer, too. "It's pretty crazy that there's a lot more information on a can of peas than on a bottle of whiskey," said Timothy Naimi, who directs the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. "Consumers have the right to basic information about health risks, serving size and drinks per container." Consuming alcohol raises the risk of developing at least seven types of cancer, including liver, breast and throat cancer, research has found. Murthy said that as a person's alcohol consumption goes up, so does the risk for developing those illnesses. However, it's unlikely that Congress would act quickly to enact a new warning on alcohol products. It's been nearly four decades since Congress approved the first government warning label on alcohol and no updates have been made since then. Any effort to add a cancer warning label to alcohol would face significant pushback from a well-funded and powerful beverage industry, which spends nearly $30 million every year lobbying Congress.