Cut alcohol limit to only one unit a day
Drinkers play ‘roulette’ with health, warns expert
DRINKERS were yesterday warned that more than one unit a day puts them at risk of dying from alcohol-related diseases.
The UK’s guidelines on alcohol should be slashed to reduce the risk of cancer and other deadly conditions, according to a global expert.
World Health Organisation (WHO) adviser Professor Jürgen Rehm told a conference in Edinburgh that seven units a week was a better guideline than the current ‘low-risk’ level of no more than fourteen units a week.
Professor Rehm, senior director at the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research in Toronto, Canada, said drinking any alcohol at all was like playing ‘roulette’.
Last night, critics attacked his comments and said changing the UK’s guidelines would be ‘potentially confusing’.
If drinkers were to follow the recommendation it would rule out many standard servings of beer or wine in pubs and restaurants.
Professor Rehm called for Scotland’s controversial minimum unit pricing policy to be expanded across the UK and for governments to change serving sizes and alcohol content to encourage people to drink less.
WHO does not issue specific guidelines, but Professor Rehm said: ‘If you have a substance which can cause cancer, then it’s basically a roulette. With every drink, you have a chance of cancer. The more drinks you ingest, the more chances of cancer, so there is no safe drinking.’
A low-risk level of drinking would be one unit of alcohol a day, which would equate to half the UK current guideline, he said.
He added: ‘One drink a day, that’s what the science says, I’m sorry. One unit a day, which is eight grams of alcohol.’
He said governments should change their serving sizes, through taxation or ‘other means’ and decrease alcohol content, with the support of the alcohol industry. Professor Rehm was speaking at the eighth European Alcohol Policy conference at the Royal College of Physicians.
In 2010 there were around 301,000 deaths due to alcohol – including heart and liver disease – in Europe, which reduced to 291,000 in 2016. In 2017, there were 1,235 alcohol-related deaths in Scotland alone.
A spokesman for industry group the Alcohol Information Partnership said: ‘The UK has one of the lowest recommended levels of alcohol consumption at 14 units a week. It would be surprising and potentially confusing if the guidelines were to be changed again.
‘Most people in the UK drink moderately. With harmful drinking, we think targeted interventions are often much more effective than blanket measures.’
Dr Eric Carlin, director of Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems, said: ‘SHAAP’s position when we were campaigning in Europe for minimum unit pricing was that this was a Scottish policy, for Scottish problems and context. It’s up to other countries to develop policies that are appropriate for their national contexts.’
Public Health Minister Joe Fitz-Patrick said: ‘Scotland is leading the world with the introduction of minimum unit pricing – a bold and innovative solution to the public health challenges associated with alcohol that will save lives, recognising that an unhealthy relationship with alcohol is a public health issue. The backing of WHO is very welcome and our own research shows there is wide public support for the policy.’
‘Policy for Scottish problems’