Media Release
Description: Alcohol Guidelines based on strong evidence. Date: 22 January 2008 |
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Alcohol Guidelines based on strong evidence
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has reinforced the quality and accuracy of its draft alcohol guidelines, saying they are based on the best available scientific evidence.
Chair of the NHMRC Alcohol Guidelines Committee Professor Jon Currie was responding to criticism of the guidelines from the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia.
“We welcome the submission from the Winemakers’ Federation, as we welcome all submissions,” Professor Currie said.
“But I want to reinforce that we have been rigorous and systematic in searching for the best available, peer-reviewed evidence and assessing that research, as we always do when developing guidelines. These are based on more than 400 international research papers.
“This evidence indicates that at a population level, more than two drinks a day is damaging to health.”
In response to claims that the guidelines were “culturally irrelevant”, Professor Currie said, “The responsible consumption of alcohol is a health issue, not a cultural issue. People make their own choices – it’s not our role to tell them how to behave.
“But it is our role to ensure people have solid, evidence-based information so they can make educated and informed decisions on health issues. These new guidelines will allow people to make those decisions.”
The NHMRC received about 160 submissions on the draft guidelines.
The guidelines are expected to be released at the end of March.
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