A social media post from the Oregon Health Authority stating the risk of excessive alcohol consumption has sparked backlash from beverage industry groups and several state lawmakers.
The clash started on June 25, when the agency’s “Rethink The Drink” campaign that encourages Oregonians to drink in moderation posted an image stating: “Along with asbestos and tobacco, alcohol is in the highest risk group for cancer.”
The next day, six alcoholic beverage industry groups criticized the post in a letter to Dr. Sejal Hathi, the director of the Oregon Health Authority who recently announced her Aug. 1 resignation.
The groups accused the agency of spreading misinformation in the post and other recent communications related to alcohol trends in the state, which they argued would hurt their businesses, according to a copy of the letter published by the Portland Business Journal.
The coalition specifically took issue with the post’s reliance on the “Group 1” carcinogen classification from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, arguing that it was misleading because the rating indicates that a substance can promote the development of cancer while not accounting for the size of the risk.
The groups argued that lumping alcohol with asbestos and tobacco implied an “equivalence of danger that the underlying science does not support,” and accused the agency of intentionally leaving out key context.
“The same Group 1 classification also includes everyday exposures such as hot dogs and sunlight,” the groups wrote. “Is OHA suggesting that Oregonians should also avoid barbeques?”
Hathi responded to the group on July 2, defending the accuracy of the agency’s post and other communications related to alcohol.
“The purpose of OHA’s social media post was to increase awareness that alcohol increases cancer risk,” she wrote in the letter, according to a copy published by the Portland Business Journal.
On Monday, a bipartisan group of 14 lawmakers expressed similar concerns about the post in a letter to the health authority’s public health director, Naomi Adeline-Biggs. They touted their commitment to uplifting Oregon’s wine industry, saying its members don’t deserve to be “unfairly depicted by their own state government.”
“We are not asking OHA to abandon its mission but rather asking it to meet a basic standard of fairness,” the members of the Legislature’s wine caucus wrote in the letter, also published by the Portland Business Journal. “Public health communication should help Oregonians make informed decisions, not trade accuracy for shock value.”
The 10 Republicans and four Democrats asked the agency to take down the post and rethink their messaging moving forward.
As of Thursday afternoon, the post was still on Instagram. A spokesperson for the health authority did not respond to an email from The Oregonian/OregonLive by Thursday afternoon asking if the agency would remove the post or adjust their messaging going forward.
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