Alcohol-based mouthwash linked to cancer

[The Straight Story]

Alcohol-based mouthwash linked to cancer

Updated at 7:22am on 12 January 2009

The Ministry of Health says people should not be using mouthwashes that contain alcohol long-term, following a review indicating it can cause cancer.

The review, authored by several independent experts and published in the Australian Dental Journal, says there is sufficient evidence to show that these mouthwashes increase people's risk of developing oral cancer.

The review says ethanol in mouthwash can permeate the lining of the mouth, making it easier for cancer causing substances to cause damage.

Acetaldehyde, a toxic by-product of alcohol that may accumulate in the oral cavity when swished around the mouth, is also believed to be carcinogenic.

One of the authors of the review, Associate Professor Michael McCullough in Queensland, says prolonged use of alcohol-based mouthwashes can increase the risk of oral cancer by four to five times.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2009/01/12/124597fe5a10

Serious question (and not to harp on the whole smoking thing, I know it is bad for you) if you get cancer in the mouth and you are a smoker and you use said mouthwash, which statistical column gets to claim credit for the cancer and used by researchers? Is there any way to tell the difference in what caused a cancer?

[sandnsea]

1. Don't know, but

how are you. Been worried about you. Maybe I just haven't seen your threads.

[The Straight Story]

5. Not around much, not doing all too well honestly

Screwed over by unemployment (took them two months to tell me I was denied in CA when it should have only taken a week). Now I am eligible for Ohio UE extension from earlier claim but having issues getting through to them.

No income, seriously depressed, marriage issue worse than before, no gas in the car to go to interviews (but X boss is getting me some Monday) and just trying to make it through another day. I'd kill for a beer right about now :)

[sandnsea]

8. That's too bad

I guess I will tell you what I told my son a month ago. Shut up and do whatever the woman says to do. :)

He's having problems with his unemployment here too, filing an extension. He couldn't work a while back because of a back injury. Then he went back to work, then he went to work for himself. They decided that because he had no income reported all summer, he was hurt again. So they denied his claim and then sent paperwork to prove he is looking for work, but didn't tell him in the numerous phone calls he has made to them. Just found that out yesterday. He's never had these kinds of problems with them before. I suspect they are denying everybody because they are terrified they are going to go broke.

[applegrove]

2. I think it is whichever is deemed to cause the most damage. If they both cause

damage in the oral cavity..they both are guilty.

[napi21]

3. Oh for god sake! Now they want to take away my wine & beer!!!!

Sorry folks, I don't buy it. I'm sure articles can get published in the Austrailian Dental Journal as easily as the can in the JAMA.

[Double T]

4. Sounds like a reasonable trade off; fresh breath for mouth cancer.

[Occam Bandage]

6. As for your column question:

neither and both. Nobody ever declares that "smoking caused this cancer" or "mouthwash caused this cancer." Rather, they look at a population of people, see how many are smokers, how many have cancer, and what the rates of cancer are in smokers as compared to nonsmokers. With a large enough sample of people, virtually every other potential factor gets lost in the statistical noise. The same process could be (and is) done with any other potential environmental factor.

[trashcanistanista]

7. My dentist told me years ago that the combination

of smoking and alcohol increases the risk for cancer more than one or the other on its own. There is something about the chemical interactions of both together in the mouth that is bad. They can't tell what exactly causes cancer. In most cancers, smoking is blamed since it is linked statistically to all kinds of cancer, but there are other factors like genetics and family history, exposure to other chemicals, viruses, immunodeficiency, even cancer killing chemo drugs can give you a new cancer.