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Australian drinking guidelines "unrealistic"
The recently released Australian draft guidelines on alcohol which set a two-drinks-a-day limit on adults while warning pregnant women and young people not to drink at all, have been come in for some harsh criticism.
The new Australian guidelines reduce current recommendations of no more than six drinks a day for men and four for women, to two a day for everyone. But a leading Australian alcohol abuse expert, Paul Dillon, says that they are "unrealistic and lack credibility".
Current British guidelines recommend that men limit their drinking to no more than three or four drinks a day and women to two or three. All guidelines stress that saving up the allowance and drinking it over a weekend binge is potentially more harmful than drinking every day.
Dillon, however, says that he will not even refer to the new Australian guidelines when talking to school children because they will be "ignored". Instead he will focus on the harm coming from alcohol abuse and the soaring rates of binge drinking and alcohol-related violence among young people.
Alcohol abuse, or problem drinking, happens when a person is not dependent on alcohol, but is drinking enough to cause themselves actual physical or psychological harm.
