If you think the nanny state will be satisfied with smoking bans everywhere....look to Australia.
Three drinks and you're out
Michael Bachelard and Heath Gilmore
June 15, 2008
THREE glasses of wine during dinner is about to be redefined as a binge-drinking episode under the Federal Government's new official drinking guidelines to be released next month.
In what one health professional has slammed as a message that "makes no sense at all", the guidelines will say that having more than four standard drinks a day constitutes a binge. An average glass of wine is 1.5 standard drinks.
"That means that if a man is sharing a bottle with his wife and takes a slightly larger share, that he's had a binge," said Paul Haber, the medical director of Drug Health Services Addiction Medicine at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
Former health minister Tony Abbott said Australia was now in a "moral panic" about alcohol and has accused the Federal Government of ignoring illicit drugs.
A draft of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines attracted controversy when it was released in October because it removed any difference between men's and women's safe drinking rates, saying that neither sex should have more than two standard drinks a day.
The former guidelines said men could safely consume four drinks, and women two. Risk was then graded according to the increasing number of drinks, with 11 or more for men, and seven or more for women, being "high risk".
But the head of the council's alcohol guidelines committee, Jon Currie, told The Sunday Age that when the final guidelines are released next month the two-drink limit will remain. He said the former safe limit for men - four drinks - would become the absolute upper limit.
"There's a new section there that says on any occasion, if you're going to set a top limit you really need to set a limit of four drinks at the most. So our definition of binge drinking will drop as well; that is new," Professor Currie said.
The risk limit had been set there because "from four drinks upwards the risks of accident and injury on any single occasion … escalate really quite dramatically".
The new guidelines will also contain no "medium risk" or "high risk" categories. "At the moment you've got 'low risk,' 'risky' and 'high risk'. What we'll now have is 'low risk' or 'above low risk'," Professor Currie said.
This has big implications for alcohol researchers, whose figures will show that people previously thought to be drinking at safe levels are now considered at risk, or even binge drinkers.
Professor Haber, who treats alcohol-addicted people every day, said his informal survey of acquaintances suggested that the new guidelines were "indefensible".
"I think that the message is a fairly extreme position, and it's just difficult to sell … I think that several members on that committee, as individual people, don't see the value in drinking, and don't see the social value in drinking for other people."
Professor Haber said that "most of the harms from alcohol come from patients who drink a lot", and that the level of risk the NHMRC committee was prepared to recommend was arbitrary, and too low.
"What are the lifetime risks of bushwalking, surfing, skiing, bicycle riding or driving a motor vehicle?
"Most human activities entail both risks and benefits and our lifestyle decisions are properly based on a broad consideration of both, rather than simply the potential for harm," Professor Haber said.
The alcohol industry is also worried that the new guidelines will restrict their ability to advertise their products because, under their voluntary code, they do not promote drinking that exceeds the NHMRC guidelines.
"We're not sure we'll be able to show a bottle of wine in front of a couple, because it would be promoting excessive alcohol consumption," said Distilled Spirits Industry Council research director Stephen Riden.
But Professor Currie called this a "specious argument".
"Of course they can (put that ad to air). But the point is, how many drinks do you have out of the bottle?"
Mr Abbott accused the Federal Government of manufacturing a community frenzy about alcohol.
"There is a moral panic which is taking over the land. There is no doubt that binge drinking is a problem but it is no worse than in the past.
"I am in favour of people improving society but you have to be reasonable about it. Usually these debates are more about establishing the virtue of the people leading the way than improving the virtue of society.
"In the end, what an individual does is his or her responsibility, particularly with something that is legal.
"While we can't ignore the problem, we need to know the real enemy and that is illicit drugs. Illicit drugs are a much worse problem and getting no attention," he said.
But Health Minister Nicola Roxon said that when Mr Abbott was minister, "he did almost nothing to tackle the harm caused by binge drinking.
"We are continuing with every existing initiative to tackle drug abuse … but what the Liberal government overlooked was the very real need to also tackle tobacco and alcohol abuse," she said.
The Federal Government is trying to increase the tax on alcopops, and has asked the food standards agency to examine warning labels for alcoholic drinks.
Three drinks and you're out
Michael Bachelard and Heath Gilmore
June 15, 2008
THREE glasses of wine during dinner is about to be redefined as a binge-drinking episode under the Federal Government's new official drinking guidelines to be released next month.
In what one health professional has slammed as a message that "makes no sense at all", the guidelines will say that having more than four standard drinks a day constitutes a binge. An average glass of wine is 1.5 standard drinks.
"That means that if a man is sharing a bottle with his wife and takes a slightly larger share, that he's had a binge," said Paul Haber, the medical director of Drug Health Services Addiction Medicine at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
Former health minister Tony Abbott said Australia was now in a "moral panic" about alcohol and has accused the Federal Government of ignoring illicit drugs.
A draft of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines attracted controversy when it was released in October because it removed any difference between men's and women's safe drinking rates, saying that neither sex should have more than two standard drinks a day.
The former guidelines said men could safely consume four drinks, and women two. Risk was then graded according to the increasing number of drinks, with 11 or more for men, and seven or more for women, being "high risk".
But the head of the council's alcohol guidelines committee, Jon Currie, told The Sunday Age that when the final guidelines are released next month the two-drink limit will remain. He said the former safe limit for men - four drinks - would become the absolute upper limit.
"There's a new section there that says on any occasion, if you're going to set a top limit you really need to set a limit of four drinks at the most. So our definition of binge drinking will drop as well; that is new," Professor Currie said.
The risk limit had been set there because "from four drinks upwards the risks of accident and injury on any single occasion … escalate really quite dramatically".
The new guidelines will also contain no "medium risk" or "high risk" categories. "At the moment you've got 'low risk,' 'risky' and 'high risk'. What we'll now have is 'low risk' or 'above low risk'," Professor Currie said.
This has big implications for alcohol researchers, whose figures will show that people previously thought to be drinking at safe levels are now considered at risk, or even binge drinkers.
Professor Haber, who treats alcohol-addicted people every day, said his informal survey of acquaintances suggested that the new guidelines were "indefensible".
"I think that the message is a fairly extreme position, and it's just difficult to sell … I think that several members on that committee, as individual people, don't see the value in drinking, and don't see the social value in drinking for other people."
Professor Haber said that "most of the harms from alcohol come from patients who drink a lot", and that the level of risk the NHMRC committee was prepared to recommend was arbitrary, and too low.
"What are the lifetime risks of bushwalking, surfing, skiing, bicycle riding or driving a motor vehicle?
"Most human activities entail both risks and benefits and our lifestyle decisions are properly based on a broad consideration of both, rather than simply the potential for harm," Professor Haber said.
The alcohol industry is also worried that the new guidelines will restrict their ability to advertise their products because, under their voluntary code, they do not promote drinking that exceeds the NHMRC guidelines.
"We're not sure we'll be able to show a bottle of wine in front of a couple, because it would be promoting excessive alcohol consumption," said Distilled Spirits Industry Council research director Stephen Riden.
But Professor Currie called this a "specious argument".
"Of course they can (put that ad to air). But the point is, how many drinks do you have out of the bottle?"
Mr Abbott accused the Federal Government of manufacturing a community frenzy about alcohol.
"There is a moral panic which is taking over the land. There is no doubt that binge drinking is a problem but it is no worse than in the past.
"I am in favour of people improving society but you have to be reasonable about it. Usually these debates are more about establishing the virtue of the people leading the way than improving the virtue of society.
"In the end, what an individual does is his or her responsibility, particularly with something that is legal.
"While we can't ignore the problem, we need to know the real enemy and that is illicit drugs. Illicit drugs are a much worse problem and getting no attention," he said.
But Health Minister Nicola Roxon said that when Mr Abbott was minister, "he did almost nothing to tackle the harm caused by binge drinking.
"We are continuing with every existing initiative to tackle drug abuse … but what the Liberal government overlooked was the very real need to also tackle tobacco and alcohol abuse," she said.
The Federal Government is trying to increase the tax on alcopops, and has asked the food standards agency to examine warning labels for alcoholic drinks.
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