To the Editor: The National Health and Medical Research Council has launched new Australian alcohol guidelines1 to help reduce alcohol-caused deaths in Australia, estimated to have been 3290 in 1997.2 Male drinkers are advised to drink no more than an average of 40 g alcohol per day and females no more than an average of 20 g of alcohol per day to prevent chronic health problems (eg, alcoholic liver cirrhosis). Furthermore, it is recommended that, provided there are no other situational or individual risk factors (such as driving or being pregnant), men drink no more than 60 g on any day and women no more than 40 g to prevent acute conditions associated with bouts of intoxication (eg, alcohol-related injuries).

Volumes of alcohol intake reported at each NHMRC risk level by 10 030 respondents to the 1998 National Drug Strategy Household (NDSH) survey were calculated.3 The data were weighted for age and sex. Volumes of alcohol reported to have been consumed at different risk levels were summed for all subjects and expressed as percentages of the total reported consumption of the sample. It was found that 39% of total consumption was categorised as being drunk by people who exceeded low-risk limits for chronic harm (36% for men, 45% for women). It was found that 51% of total consumption occurred on days when the drinker exceeded low-risk limits for acute harm (53% for men and 47% for women). Drinking that was risky for either acute or chronic harm was found to comprise 67% of total consumption (see Table). For young men aged 18–24 years this figure was 93% of all alcohol consumed.

These estimates are conservative, as the level of drinking reported in the 1998 NDSH survey is consistent with an adult per capita consumption of only 46.5% of that estimated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics for that year on the basis of import, export and production data.3

The high proportion of all alcohol consumed that places drinkers at risk of serious harm helps explain why per capita alcohol consumption correlates so closely with levels of suicide, road death, homicide, liver cirrhosis and other causes of death.4 It follows that policies which reduce the total consumption of alcohol in Australia will reduce the associated health and economic costs by reducing levels of risky drinking. Further, policies which successfully reduce high-risk drinking will also reduce total population consumption of alcohol.