On New Year’s Day, as people the world over nursed their hangovers, the World Health Organisation announced there is no safe amount of alcohol.

The main reason (and there are plenty) was cancer risk. Every drop is a potential tumour.

The WHO, writing in The Lancet, acknowledged that “some, but not all, studies have suggested that light alcohol consumption could have a small protective effect” against the risk of “some cardiovascular diseases or type 2 diabetes”.

However, available “evidence does not indicate the existence of a particular threshold at which the carcinogenic effects of alcohol start to manifest in the human body”.

This being WHO, the statement was met by the sound of crickets. No great media response.

News from Canada makes a big splash

This week, Canada announced new guidelines that recommend no more than two drinks a week – and that’s only if you really, really must drink at all.

That’s a big plunge from guidelines handed down in 2011. They allowed a maximum of 10 drinks a week for women and 15 drinks for men.

The advice comes from a report, funded by Health Canada, that no amount of alcohol is safe for human consumption.

Also recommended: Mandatory health warning labels for all alcoholic beverages.

One of the experts explains

Speaking to the BBC, Dr Erin Hobin, a senior scientist with Public Health Ontario and a member of the expert panel that developed the guidelines stated: “The main message from this new guidance is that any amount of alcohol is not good for your health. And if you drink, less is better.”

Dr Hobin conceded that the guidance “is maybe a bit shocking”.

He described as “very new information for the public that at three standard drinks per week, the risk for head and neck cancers increases by 15 per cent, and further increases with every additional drink”.

The nearly 90-page report, from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), advised that any more than two standard drinks carries an increased risk of breast and colon cancer, among other “negative outcomes”.

The Australian position

The federal Department of Health advises that no amount of alcohol is risk-free.

The department advises that, if you’re a healthy adult, to reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury, healthy men and women should drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than four standard drinks on any one day.

A standard drink contains 10 grams of pure alcohol. Many drinks have more than one standard drink in them.

Aussie rules, well, advice: no more than 10 standard drinks a week. Image: NHMRC

A 2013 investigation by the Victorian government, found that “alcohol plays a significant role in the way Victorians define their individual identities, as well as the identities of others”.

“Drinking is so culturally entrenched that we regularly use it as a way of
expressing our values and beliefs.”

The investigators found that people who didn’t drink at all were largely perceived as “odd” and “extreme”.

Cutting back, a bit

In the past five years, we have, as a nation, reportedly cut back our drinking.

Dr Michael Livingston is associate professor at the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University.

In a July interview with wellness site Body and Soul, he said: “Consumption has been decreasing here since about 2007, and we’ve seen a 10 per cent reduction in per capita consumption across the whole population.

“It’s being driven by big shifts amongst teenagers and young adults; they’re drinking significantly less than previous generations did at the same age.”

In September, Cancer Australia reported that Australia’s annual alcohol consumption remains “relatively high compared to other developed countries” – fifth highest among 18 selected developed countries at 9.5 litres per capita.

The report said “apparent alcohol consumption peaked in Australia in 1974-76 with an annual per capita consumption of 13.1 litres”.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare is conducting its National Drug Strategy Household Survey.

The findings will reveal how much we’ve cut back and how we feel about drinking.