The Canadian Cancer Society is encouraging an alcohol free February.

The Dry Feb campaign calls for abstinence from alcohol to improve health and raise funds for cancer research, government advocacy and support for those with the disease.

Karla Heintz of the society’s prairie office says any amount of alcohol increases the risk of getting cancer.

She says the ethanol in any type of alcoholic drink breaks down into a pair of cancer causing compounds which damages DNA and limits the body’s ability to be repair the damaged DNA.

Heintz adds damaged DNA is the pathway for the disease.

The most common forms of cancer linked to alcohol are of the brain, neck, breast, colon, liver and pancreas.

She points out previous participants have consciously cut down on their drinking after their campaigns.

The society recommends women have less than one drink per day and men have less than two per day.