Alcohol guide critics are misguided, says NHMRC

The alcohol industry’s peak lobby group, Alcohol Beverages Australia, unleashed a fresh assault on the recommendations on Monday, describing them as lacking evidence

In draft guidelines due to come into effect this month, the NHMRC is recommending that adults drink no more than 10 standard drinks per week.

The National Health and Medical Research Council has defended its new guidelines on alcohol consumption, rejecting criticism from the alcohol industry that health experts were on a “last-ditch nanny state crusade”.

In draft guidelines due to come into effect this month, the NHMRC is recommending that adults drink no more than 10 standard drinks per week, or a maximum of four in one day.

The alcohol industry’s peak lobby group, Alcohol Beverages Australia, unleashed a fresh assault on the recommendations on Monday, describing them as lacking evidence. The organisation accused the NHMRC of trying to emulate the same zero-tolerance approach to alcohol as had been employed regarding tobacco.

“The rate of alcohol consumption has been coming down for years, so you have to wonder whether this is some last-ditch nanny state crusade to treat all alcohol­ consumption as life-threatening,” ABA chief executive Andrew Wilsmore said.

Mr Wilsmore alleged the NHMRC had “cherrypicked” data from a landmark Sheffield University study into alcohol to create the worst possible picture of its health impact.

But NHMRC chief executive Anne Kelso said the criticism was misguided. “The Australian guide­­lines to reduce health risks from drinking alcohol­ are just that — guidelines to help people make their own decisio­ns,” ­Professor Kelso said.

“They have been developed by a group of leading clinicians, public health experts and researchers with deep experience based on the best available evidence.

“All Australians, including industry, have had an opportunity to comment on the draft … (It has) been reviewed by the NHMRC Council, including the chief medical and health ­officers of the commonwealth, states and territories, and the final guide­lines will be published soon.”

Public health institutes and alcohol­ harm-reduction groups also stressed that the NHMRC’s alcohol working committee had undertaken a deep and thorough review of a wide array of evidence.

James Smith, head of the alcoho­l, other drugs and gamb­ling team at the Menzies School of Health Research, said the committee was focused on lowering the risk of harms from alcohol at a population-wide level.

“The working group has done a very comprehensive assessment of the best available international evidence which now brings Australia into line with many other developed countries,” Professor Smith said. “I would say on balance­ that their comprehensive review would outweigh the views of the alcohol industry in this particular­ ­debate.”

He said alcohol harms cost the nation $1.38bn a year in the Northern Territory alone. “I think we’ve got to understand that there’s significant societal harms caused by alcohol. What we know is the less you drink, the lower your risk of harms from alcohol.

“It’s not a case of nanny state, it’s a case of making sure that our community stays healthy and safe.” The draft guidelines also recommend that pregnant women and children younger than 18 drink no alcohol at all.