Two glasses of wine a night triples risk of mouth cancer

Other than the snow, the main headlines seem to be that "Two glasses of wine a night triples risk of mouth cancer" and that the government is about to launch a TV advertising campaign to press home the message.
Note how statistics are manipulated to show the percentage increase in  the risk, but rarely show the basic risk from which this figure has been calculated.
Clearly something went wrong at the Telegraph as the actually gave some real data in stating that
"Mouth cancer is diagnosed in more than 5,000 people a year, leading to about 1,800 deaths, while about 12 million people have high blood pressure, increasing their chances of strokes and heart attacks."
So the risk of getting mouth cancer, assuming a population of 60 million is about 1 in 12,000 and of dying from it is about 1 in 33,000, a risk that I'm quite happy to take.
When it comes to high blood pressure, it is a well known fact that one's blood pressure increases with age, and with the present ageing population, why should anyone be surprised that the figure is increasing?
Of course, the government and all the various anti-alcohol organisations never point out the good that a moderate intake of alcohol can do, something which has been highlighted in numerous reports over the years and which is carefully ignored by the  medical profession.
So we are to have more government taxpayers' money spent on advertising to tell us half-truths. Surely it is their duty to give us all the facts so that we might weigh the advantages and disadvantages for ourselves?
Why don't they just shut up and leave us alone?
Do they really believe that a worthwhile number of people will take any notice of these adverts?
At least most of us know about the long term results of drinking alcohol, which is more than can be said about many of the drugs that our medical profession could end up prescribing as alternatives.

Should we trust drug research?

Yesterday, there was extensive cover in the media of a report that common prescription and over-the-counter medications could give rise to various problems if taken in combination. There was no indication as to which combinations could cause problems as it is clearly not practical to test every possible combination. This report was clearly of concern to Mrs EP, in that she takes two of the prescription drugs mentioned. Obviously a visit to our GP is now in order. Add to this the fact that she has been told to avoid grapefruit as it is known to "strengthen" the drugs leading to the possibility of the equivalent of an overdose, it becomes clear that our knowledge of how drugs work in combination with not only other drugs, but with common foods, is very limited.
Today it is reported that Britain has been hit by a five-fold rise in cases of measles. Could this be because the measles vaccination is only offered as part of the triple MMR vaccination? Although Andrew Wakefield's research has been rubbished by the UK medical authorities, the main complaint against him seems to have been the manner in which he got blood samples for his research, rather than his actual findings, and it is clear that many people are still very wary of the triple vaccine.
This latest report concerning combinations of drug will only add to the concerns in the eyes of the general public Should one have vaccinations (of any kind) if one is taking medication? What real research has been carried out into combinations of vaccines?
Fortunately, the problem doesn't concern me personally at the moment; I've managed to reduce my regular medication to just 3-4 units of alcohol per day!