A major pan-European research led by the University of Glasgow Dental School suggests that people rinsing with alcohol-based mouthwash more than three times a day have a greater chance of developing mouth and throat cancer.
Dr David Conway, a senior lecturer said people should not routinely use a mouthwash and instead stick to brushing and flossing.
In 2009 we covered research in Cancer Watch from Perth Medical School showing that alcohol based mouthwash had a negative ‘multiplier effect’ with smoking and/or alcohol consumption. At that time, mouthwash increased risk of throat, mouth and oesophageal cancer threefold if you also drank alcohol, and five times if you also smoked. The Perth researchers said at the time that, if it were a face cream with these findings it would be banned immediately!
Cancer Research UK continues to say on its website that there is no proven link between such ‘Environmental’ toxins and cancer.