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 05 July 2008 04:11 BST

Alcohol limits 'guessed'

Saturday, 20 Oct 2007 08:23
Britain's binge-drinking problem spreads across the class divide

Health In Focus 

Alcohol guidelines introduced 20 years ago were no more than an "intelligent guess", it has been claimed.

Current Department of Health guidelines recommend a weekly consumption of no more than 21 units of alcohol per week for men and no more than 14 for women.

However, a new report has suggested that the 1987 recommendations had little scientific basis.

Talking to the Times, Richard Smith, a member of the Royal College of Physicians' working party responsible for the original guidelines, told the paper the recommendations had been driven by a "feeling that you had to say something".

He commented: "Those limits were really plucked out of the air. They were not based on any firm evidence at all. It was a sort of intelligent guess by a committee."

New research released earlier this week revealed the extent of British binge drinking, with a quarter of adults in middle-class areas found to regularly consume 'hazardous' levels of alcohol (22 to 50 units per week for men, 15 to 35 for women).

Figures compiled by the North West Public Health Observatory at Liverpool John Moores University's Centre for Public Health found that across England around 20 per cent of adults are drinking enough alcohol to put their health at significant risk - alcohol-related disease is inevitable for one in 20 adults.

However, Mr Smith's revelations raise doubt over the correct definition of 'hazardous' drinking.End of story


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