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Doctors call for action on alcohol, survival rates for breast cancer, and should your coffee carry a health warning?

Doctors have called for urgent action to limit the sale and promotion of alcohol in an effort to tackle drink-related problems, the Guardian reported today.

The Alcohol Health Alliance, a coalition of medical organisations including the RCGP and the BMA, have urged ministers to introduce hard-hitting warning, similar to those on cigarette packets, on drinks and an end to drinks firms sponsoring sport.

They also called for the miminum price for a unit to be set at 50p, 5p higher than proposed by the coalition Government, drinks sales in shops to be restricted to certain times and to designated areas in shops and for the legal driving limit to be reduced to 50mg per 100ml of blood- not more than one pint of beer.

But the drinks industry hit back at the proposals, and the DH said they did not support the introduction of graphic health warnings.

BBC news reports that British women with late-stage breast cancer have lower survival rates than five other high-income countries, including Sweden and Canada, a study has found.

Research published in the British Journal of Cancer found that 28% of women with the most advanced cancers survived for three years in the UK, compared with 42% fin Sweden.

There was little variation at one year survival, though for women with the most advanced breast cancers, one-year survival ranged from 53% in the UK to 67% in Sweden.

Over at the Daily Mail caffeine is coming under fire. Caffeine is so dangerous is should be regulated like alcohol and cigarettes, warns a leading expert.

Dr Jack James, editor in chief of the Journal of Caffeine Research, said the stimulant is causing ‘untimely deaths’ and it’s ‘lethality’ is being underestimated.

He is concerned that caffeine is being increasingly added to products such as energy drinks, alcoholic drinks, cookies, chewing gum, yogurt and flavoured milk and medicines such as cold and flu remedies, weight loss pills, cosmetics, soaps and even tights.

Products should be labelled with the amount they contain and sales to children should be limited, he added.


          

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