·Men's should not exceed 4 units or 40 g of absolute alcohol per day on a regular basis, or 28 units per week.

·Women should not exceed 2 units of 20 g of absolute alcohol per day on a regular basis, or 14 units per week.

Simply, one unit, which is also referred to as a standard drink, is 10 g of absolute alcohol or ethanol in Australia.

New guidelines In 1999, the NH&MRC began a review of their guidelines, as more material was available on the importance of drinking patterns, age and health status, as well as the amount of alcohol consumed on any one occasion, and the safe consumption of alcohol by men versus women.

The review accepts that alcohol, at low to moderate levels, can have significant health benefits for some people -especially in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) from middle age onwards. CVD is the leading cause of death(25%) in Australia. This consideration is reflected in the title of the new guidelines, published in October 2001 Australian Alcohol Guidelines: health risks and benefits and is consistent with the Australian Federal Governments policy. The guidelines are as follows:

Guideline 1 Every person who drinks alcohol should control their pattern of drinking to minimise both longer-term and short-term risks, and to gain longer-term benefits.

For example, men should drink:

·No more than 28 standard drinks per week, which should be spread over 5 or 6 days; and no more than 4 standard drinks per day, but no more than 6 standard drinks on any one occasion and no more than 2 drinks in the first hour and 1 per hour thereafter, to minimise short-term risk within the weekly limit.

For example, women should drink:

·No more than 14 standard drinks per week, which should be spread over 5 or 6 days; and no more than 2 standard drinks per day, but no more 4 standard drinks on any one occasion and no more than 1 standard drinks per hour, to minimise short-term risk within the weekly limit.

These drinks should be spread over several hours, whereby for most men and women drinking at these rates, their BAC should remain below 0.05 g/dl.

These guidelines are set, however, not at the lowest risk of mortality but at the point at which risk begins to increase significantly above the level of risk for non-drinkers. At higher levels of alcohol consumption than recommended in Guideline 1, the harms far outweigh the potential benefits.

Guideline 2 When undertaking activities that involve risk or a degree of skill, people should not drink alcohol before or during such activities. Examples of activities include flying, water sports, skiing, using complex or heavy machinery, including farm machinery, and driving. This is because even very low levels of alcohol can effect judgement and performance, as the persons BAC increases, movement and coordination also become affected.

Guideline 3 People who are responsible for private and public drinking environments should actively promote responsible drinking. They should strive to ensure that those people being served alcohol do not become intoxicated and refuse to served alcohol to those people that are intoxicated and closely monitor and supervise young people.

Specific recommendations for particular groups in the population are included in the Australian Alcohol Guidelines for the first time, as follows:

Guideline 4 People with a health or social problem that is related to alcohol, or worsened by alcohol, including alcohol dependence should consider not drinking at all, or should stop drinking for at least several weeks or months, but may then try drinking at very low levels (below guideline 1) under professional health supervision. They should never drink if they have developed severe alcohol dependence or if the health problem is severe, such as cirrhosis of the liver, hepatitis, very high and uncontrollable blood pressure and pancreatitis, as they will incur further and potentially fatal harm if they continue to drink alcohol.

Guideline 5 People with an alcohol dependent relative are more at risk than the general population of developing alcohol dependence. These people are advised to be careful about how much and how often they drink alcohol, have regular alcohol free days per week and consider not drinking at all

Guideline 6 As alcohol affects cognitive function and mood, people with a mental health problem, such as anxiety, depression or schizophrenia should stay with in the levels set in Guideline 1, and should consult their doctor or pharmacist about worsening their problem or incurring possible side effects if on medication. They should consider not drinking at all if they find it difficult to keep within the levels of Guideline 1, and/or their symptoms persist.

Guideline 7 Alcohol interacts with many medications, and this can alter the effect of alcohol and/or the medication. People taking medications or other drugs should consult their doctor and/or pharmacist. Those on medications should carefully read the labels and pamphlets of medications to check for interactions with alcohol. If drinking alcohol and consuming benzodiazepines, heroin, methadone or any other central nervous system depressants extra care must be taken.

Guideline 8 Older people,(70+) are advised to drink less than the level set in Guideline 1 as alcohol tends to produce a higher BAC in older people, Also, the body's (neurological) tolerance for alcohol decreases with age. Furthermore, older people often take more regular medications, which may interact with alcohol with significant side effects.

Guideline 9 18- 25 years, are especially urged not to drink beyond the levels set in Guideline 1. as this age group is at greatest risk for alcohol-related traffic accidents and injuries, and also that any potential protection from cardiovascular disease generally begins from 35 to 40 years of age onwards for men and 45 to 50 years for women, when the risk of cardiovascular disease begins to increase with increasing age.

Guideline 10 For those under18, any drinking should be kept to a minimum, and under supervision, as a young persons ability to cope with alcohol is influenced by their physical size and stage of development.In addition, children generally lack experience of drinking alcohol and its effects and thus lack a context or reference point for assessing and regulating their consumption.

Guideline 11 Women who are pregnant or might soon become pregnant may consider not drinking at all, but if they do drink, should not drink more than one standard drink on any one day, and most importantly, should never become intoxicated.

In Australia, FAS occurs only once in 100,000 live births, and the Department of Human Services and Health in 1995 concluded that "there is no ill-effect of light alcohol consumption, that is, 10 g alcohol per day, on the developing foetus".

Guideline 12 There are many health, family and social reasons why some people choose not to drink alcohol, and they should not be urged to do so to gain any potential health benefit.

In conclusion as with any risk of illness, injury or death, the costs and benefits of a particular behaviour such as alcohol consumption, must be evaluated and continuously evaluated. These new guidelines accurately and adequately reflect the increasingly knowledge and understanding of alcohol-related harms and in particular benefits to the population per se, but the NH&MRC can not rest on these laurels as further information becomes available.