France has one of the highest alcohol consumption rates in Europe, with the country trailing behind only Estonia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic in the quantities of alcohol it drinks, according to the World Health Organization.
This drinking culture – largely attributed to wine, which represents 58 percent of France's total alcohol consumption – on Monday prompted the public health agency and the National Institute of Cancer (INCa) to launch a national campaign, with recommendations for the maximum daily intake of alcohol.
"For your health, alcohol should be limited to a maximum of two glasses per day, and not every day either," they wrote, a limit that 24 percent of French adults regularly surpass.
Alcohol is the second-biggest cause for preventable deaths in France after tobacco, killing some 41,000 people each year.
"That's about 10.5 million adults who drink too much. In any case they drink in proportions that increase the risks to their health, including cancers, high blood pressure, cerebral hemorrhage, and cardiovascular diseases," Viet Nguyen-Thanh, head of the public health agency's addition unit, told FRANCE 24.