Health officials in Massachusetts are expanding their advice about alcohol use to emphasize the health risks of regular drinking. In guidance released this week, the state Department of Public Health says even moderate drinking — one glass a day for women or two for men — can increase the chances of developing some types of cancer, high blood pressure and heart disease.
Sarah Ruiz, deputy director for strategy and community health with the state’s Bureau of Substance Addiction Services, said the recommendations echo a growing body of evidence that finds no amount of alcohol is safe.
“The fewer drinks you have each week, the better your health outcomes will be,” said Ruiz.
In parsing the potential harms of limited drinking, Massachusetts is in step with guidance from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction that indicates health risks from fewer drinks than the current U.S. recommendations.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also advises that “moderate drinking may have health risks,” but does not specify the number of drinks associated with low, moderate or high levels of risk. Current federal dietary guidelines say “consume less alcohol for better overall health,” but do not say how many drinks impact health.
On Capitol Hill, Republican leaders are pushing back against efforts to adopt guidance similar to the Massachusetts approach, arguing the research that supports it is flawed. And some alcohol use researchers said the state’s guidance will scare people unnecessarily.
Eric Rimm, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, called the state guidance “a very one-sided warning.”
“They’re only focusing on the negative,” said Rimm. “People who consume at moderate or higher levels do have a slightly higher risk of cancer, but they also live longer.”
Rimm, who has faced criticism in the past for accepting money from alcohol-related organizations, cited a 2024 report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine that found, with “moderate certainty,” that moderate drinkers had a lower risk of death from all causes than people who never had a drink.
But Ruiz said on balance, the research to date supports the state’s guidance. The goal isn’t to scare anyone, she said, but to show the benefits of drinking less and, hopefully, reduce alcohol-related problems.
In 2023, the most recent year with available data, national highway safety records show 1 in 3 traffic deaths in Massachusetts involved a drunk driver. In 2025, state health officials reported 1,665 alcohol-related deaths and 90,801 emergency room visits for an alcohol-related problem.
Dr. Angela Landerholm, chief of psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth, said the new guidance could help prevent a progression from lower-risk drinking to an alcohol use disorder and encourage people to seek help earlier.
“Problematic alcohol use exists on a continuum rather than an abrupt transition from ‘normal’ drinking to alcohol use disorder,” said Landerholm, who treats patients addicted to alcohol.
For the last decade or more, state and other health leaders in Massachusetts and beyond have focused little attention on the health impacts of drinking because opioid use was seen as the more immediate public health emergency. However, there are far fewer opioid-related incidents as compared to those attributed to alcohol. Last year, there were 971 opioid overdose deaths and 8,384 ER trips after an overdose or a related emergency, a nearly nine-fold difference.
Ruiz said that’s due, in part, to the fact that more people drink alcohol than use opioids, but she said the Department of Public Health sees those numbers as another reason to update its messaging about alcohol.
Messages sent to three groups representing beer, wine and liquor producers, distributors and sellers were either not answered or group leaders declined comment.
There’s evidence the state guidance aligns with the behavior of more than half of Americans. In a 2025 Gallup poll, 53% of adults said they thought moderate drinking was bad for their health. The 54% of participants who said they drink was an all-time low for Gallup, which began tracking alcohol use in 1939.
The state has a helpline for anyone seeking help with excessive drinking. And Massachusetts does not allow retailers or adults to supply alcohol to minors.
Source: www.wbur.org
