Some 65 per cent were unaware it increases the risk of bowel cancer and 63 per cent did not know about a raised risk of pancreatitis.
In a commentary published in the journal, Dr Jürgen Rehm at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto writes that the raised risk of certain cancers caused by light drinking is important.
Severe depression also carries a raised risk of death by suicide and this is now the second most common cause of death in those under the age of 35.
Last year, for instance, the Harvard School of Public Health also linked intake of red and processed meat to a raised risk of death from cancer or heart disease and early death, as today's new study does, In 2009 researchers from the US National Cancer Institute said broadly the same.
A study published in November in The Journal of the American Medical Association linked an increased intake of sugar-sweetened soda to a raised risk of gout in women, who until menopause are relatively protected against the disease by estrogen, which helps the body excrete uric acid.
She said there was also the risk of the baby overheating and a raised risk of cot death.
They include a raised risk of women developing breast cancer if they have a family history of bowel cancer.
One of the drugs - rofecoxib (also known by its brand name, Vioxx) was withdrawn in 2004 when other studies found a raised risk of heart attacks.
A quarter of hospital trusts in England are at raised risk of providing poor care, a review by the regulator shows.
But an increase in heavy rainfall in some of these regions is also likely to bring with it many negative effects, such as a raised risk of flooding and the waterlogging of soils.
These genes ordinarily work as tumor suppressors, but when they are mutated, they are known to lead to a dramatically raised risk of cancer, the National Cancer Institute reported.
