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Friday 6 March 2009

NATIONAL MEDIA BRIEFING | RAPID ROUNDUP: Launch of Australia’s Alcohol Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking

EMBARGO LIFTED: 11am AEDT Friday 6 March

BRIEFING DETAILS:
DATE: Friday 6 March 2009
START TIME: 10am AEDT
DURATION: 45 min
VENUE: Melbourne

How much should people drink to reduce their risk of being harmed by alcohol? How much is too much? How can you make an assessment of the risk to you from drinking, and what are your choices?

All this and more is in Australia’s new Alcohol Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol, developed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) released in Melbourne today. The guidelines have been three years in the making, and are the latest word on health advice on this vexed subject.

Join the NHMRC and AusSMC to hear from the report authors on the key points from the new guidelines.

SPEAKERS:

Prof Warwick Anderson is CEO of the National Health and Medical Research Council Listen to Warwick (mp3)

Prof Jon Currie is Director of Addiction Medicine, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne and University of Melbourne Listen to Jon (mp3)

Prof Elizabeth Elliott is Professor of Paediatrics & Child Health at University of Sydney, Children's Hospital Westmead and Director of the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit. Listen to Elizabeth (mp3)

Listen to the Q and A session (mp3)

Follow the full presentation by clicking here (Webex)

RESOURCES:

View the powerpoint presentation used by the speakers (pdf)

RAPID ROUNDUP: Launch of Australia’s Alcohol Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories that relate to the above story. If you would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 8207 7415 or by email.

Professor Ann M Roche is Director of the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction at Flinders University and was a member of the expert panel who developed the new guidelines.

"The new guidelines provide greater emphasis on the risks associated with alcohol and young people. In particular, those under the age of 15 are strongly advised not to drink alcohol at all, and extreme care is warranted in relation to alcohol use by those aged 15-18. There is an important message here for parents and those involved with young people in general. The guidelines indicate comparatively low levels of consumption are needed to avoid both short and long term risk of harm from alcohol. These guidelines usher in a new era of caution in relation to alcohol and substantially revises our views about what constitutes low risk drinking levels.

Paul Dillon is Director of Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia.

“It is made explicitly clear that the role of these guidelines is as a ‘technical document’ and not as a practical tool for the general public. It will now be interesting to see how the science is translated to credible messages that the average Australian family will be able to use on a day-to-day basis. Without a doubt some of the messages will be a terribly hard sell. Are Australians ready to accept that they should drink no more than four drinks on a single occasion? The science may be correct but it’s how we communicate it that is going to be the real issue here.”

Dr David Caldicott is an emergency doctor and recognised drug and alcohol expert based in Adelaide.

“Alcohol is unequivocally the most dangerous recreational drug being consumed in Australia today, in terms of the numbers of individuals being injured, and those being killed, both directly and indirectly, per annum. This is an unattractive fact for consumers of alcohol, those profiting from the sales of alcohol, and those with a political interest in the racier, but epidemiologically less significant field of illicit drugs. New guidelines from the independent NH&MRC - Australian Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol - will do nothing to reassure those groups that the Australian love of grog is merely a healthy, innocent diversion, and directly challenges the concept of the larrikins’ right to drink long, and to drink hard.

These well-considered and well-written guidelines address the health risks associated with alcohol on at least 2 important levels. The report distils down to 4 simple and easily understandable guidelines regarding lifetime risk, binge drinking, youth drinking and drinking in pregnancy, making them easily comprehensible by the members of the lay-public they seek to inform. For those who will try to dismiss this report (and there will be many), their work will be cut out - the detailed and densely referenced 188 pages are written by a list of contributors that reads like a Who’s Who of the best in Drugs and Alcohol research in the Southern Hemisphere.

This is a brave and comprehensive document, the timely release of which will make a significant contribution to the general understanding of the harms associated with alcohol consumption in Australia. It helps reassign alcohol to a more significant position in the spectrum of harm caused by recreational drugs. The authors have pulled few punches, and are no doubt prepared for an onslaught in response from the powerful Australian drinks lobby, and those in their pocket. The industry only has itself to blame; tepid attempts to address the dangers associated with alcohol consumption, and the derailing of efforts to mitigate the harms associated with them, have made a report such as this not only inevitable, but long overdue.”
Prof Elizabeth Elliott is Professor of Paediatrics & Child Health at University of Sydney, Children's Hospital Westmead and Director of the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit.

“The new guidelines provide clear advice to women who are pregnant or planning pregnancy. Because no level of maternal alcohol intake has been established as ‘safe’ for the unborn child, the guidelines state that not drinking alcohol is the safest option. At the same time they emphasise that the risk of harm increases with increasing dose, frequency and duration of alcohol intake during pregnancy and that various unmeasurable factors in the individual woman may modify the level of risk. Furthermore, they suggest that women who have inadvertently drunk small amounts during pregnancy should be reassured that they are highly unlikely to have harmed their unborn child.”

Wayne Hall is Professor of Public Health Policyat the School of Population Health, University of Queensland

“The new NHMRC guidelines on low risk drinking are to be welcomed. First, they use a novel approach to estimating low risk levels of alcohol use that uses the same approach now used in medicine to indicate lifetime risk of heart disease.

Second, they specify separate low risk levels of drinking for acute harms (e.g. injury) and chronic harms (e.g. liver cirrhosis and cancers). Each is designed to keep the risk of harm at less than 1 in 100 over a life-time of drinking.

Third new levels are clearly defined and very clearly related to the research evidence on which they are based.

Fourth, the guideline for low risk of acute harm (4 drinks) is much like the old guideline, except that the same levels are used for men and women. Women achieve a higher blood alcohol level for the same amount as men, but the guidelines argue that their risk is about the same as men because women are less likely to do risky things than men.

Fifth, the level for low risk of chronic harm (2 standard drinks) makes it clear that someone who drinks nearly every day at below the “safe” levels for injury can still be at risk of liver disease. Two or fewer standard drinks keeps this risk under 1 in 100 over a lifetime.

Sixth, the guidelines have taken a more conservative course than community opinion on drinking by pregnant women and young people. These are nonetheless worth supporting. Alcohol use is optional during pregnancy and because of misinterpretation of “low risk” drinking it may be simpler to recommend no alcohol use during pregnancy. The guidelines for young people should prompt a long overdue public debate about alcohol use by young people.”