U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy announced on Jan. 3 that alcohol consumption poses a grave enough cancer risk to merit placing warning labels on alcoholic beverage containers. It didn’t take long for personal injury attorneys to start up the “if you or a loved one” messaging.
The Surgeon General’s advisory on alcohol and cancer risk inspired Parker Waichman LLP, a New York City-based law firm specializing in personal injury, mass tort and environmental law, to announce it was seeking plaintiffs for a class-action lawsuit against the alcohol industry.
Parker Waichman is best known for suing the Trump Organization in 2023 for inflating the rent of 14,000 rent-controlled New York City apartments as well as its class-action suit on behalf of people injured by toxic substances in the water at Camp Lejeune, a U.S. Marine base in Jacksonville, North Carolina. The firm claims on its website to have recovered over two billion dollars for its clients.
Earlier this month, Tom Wark, National Association of Wine Retailers executive director and founder of Wark Communications, predicted the Surgeon General’s advisory would inspire such a class-action suit against the alcohol industry.
In his Fermentation newsletter on Substack, Wark wrote on Jan. 5: “The lawsuit is coming. ‘Big Alcohol has known for decades that alcohol causes cancer and did nothing to warn the public. They have perpetrated a fraud upon the public, and they must pay,’ is how the opening of their lawsuit will read.”
Although Wark suggested a two-year time frame for a class-action lawsuit to materialize, it didn’t take nearly that long for Parker Waichman.
In the Jan. 16 edition of Fermentation, Wark broke the news by pointing out the following statement on the law firm’s website: “If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with cancer linked to alcohol consumption, you may have the right to pursue compensation through a product liability lawsuit. Alcohol manufacturers must be held accountable for failing to warn the public about the known cancer risks associated with their products.”
Wark said the law firm was clearly laying out its plan to establish a connection between alcohol and cancer, prove manufacturer negligence, demonstrate personal harm, file the lawsuit and then either negotiate a settlement or go to trial.
“The class action lawsuit against alcohol is coming. Whether it’s Parker Waichman or another plaintiff’s law firm, the suit is coming, and the Surgeon General’s Advisory will be at the center of it,” Wark said.
Wark said it was likely that the largest wine, beer and spirits producers and wholesalers would be the targets of any lawsuits, as they have the deepest pockets.
The cancer case against the alcohol industry will be a challenging one to make, according to Wark.
“I can’t imagine this kind of lawsuit will be as easy to win or settle positively as the tobacco lawsuits were. The link between alcohol and cancer is far more tenuous than between tobacco and cancer. This is indicated by the wording of the Surgeon General’s advisory in which the word ‘may‘ is used many times,” Wark said.
Even if the lawsuits are unsuccessful, they will be expensive and having plaintiff-seeking media ads running non-stop, as Parker Waichman did for several years with its Camp Lejeune case, is bound to take its toll.
Wark fears the claim of a connection between alcohol and cancer will become part of “the cultural zeitgeist and result in a significant reduction in moderate alcohol consumption going forward. If it does play out this way, it means the loss of billions of dollars in revenue, the loss of numerous producers, and significant consolidation within the industry. I think the likelihood of this risk coming to fruition is high.”
Is the Surgeon General’s case for alcohol consumption causing cancer, even at low levels of consumption, supported by the best available science? Is the cancer risk high enough to justify warning labels? Are alcohols created equal when it comes to cancer risks?
Beginning next week, these and other related questions will be addressed in a series of articles on OregonLive.
— Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian/OregonLive and Wine Enthusiast Magazine. He can be reached at malberty0@gmail.com. To read more of his coverage, go to oregonlive.com/wine