12.0 Alcohol Education as a Preventative Measure

12.1 The Amsterdam Group report and other drinks industry publications lay great stress on the importance of alcohol education. Indeed, education appears to be the only preventative measure aimed at the entire population and not just "actual alcohol abusers" that the drinks industry regards as acceptable and claims to be effective.

12.2 In reality, the evidence for the effectiveness of education programmes is a great deal less convincing than that for control measures such as relatively high alcohol taxation. ¹⁷

12.3 This is particularly so in relation to the kind of education the drinks industry has in mind - informing individual alcohol consumers how much it is "safe" to consume i.e. the promotion of "sensible" or "responsible" drinking, including to young people and children.

12.4 It is not difficult to understand why the drinks industry is so enthusiastic about the promotion of "sensible drinking". Not only does such promotion give the appearance, at least to the naive, of social concern and responsibility,it is also barely distinguishable from campaigns to promote drinking particularly, of course, when it is linked to claims about the alleged health benefits of "moderate" consumption.

12.5 Other relevant considerations include:

• As the majority of the population consume less than the upper limits endorsed by "sensible drinking" campaigns, such campaigns may be as likely to encourage the majority to increase their consumption as the minority of heavy drinkers to reduce theirs.
• Much of the harm from alcohol is in the form of social problems arising from acute intoxication. These are poorly addressed by guidelines based on evidence mainly in relation to medical problems caused by habitual heavy drinking.
• There is also a large question regarding the applicability of "sensible limits" to the whole population. One of the reasons the Netherlands Government decided against a "sensible limits" approach was that the limits have been calculated mainly on the basis of evidence in relation to middle aged adults: they do not necessarily apply to the young, the old, the already unhealthy and those in high risk groups who, in total, may comprise around half the population. ⁴⁰

12.6 While there may be a threshold of consumption below which there is no significantly increased risk of, for example, alcoholic liver disease, the same cannot be said in relation to accident risk and possibly other behavioural and social consequences. In these respects there is no such thing as an absolutely "safe" level of consumption, merely increasing levels of risk. At the individual level, therefore, it would be preferable for educational messages to refer to these considerations, pointing out that risk is proportionate to dose and that less alcohol equals less risk rather than promoting possibly fictitious "sensible" or "safe" limits, especially as these may be interpreted not as maxima but as medically recommended levels of consumption.