Alcohol - Australian Alcohol Guidelines

Australian Alcohol Guidelines

Alcohol and your health

One drink isn't always one drink.

Alcohol - Wine - Beer - Spirits

Understanding the Australian Alcohol Guidelines

Due to the different ways that alcohol can affect people, there is no amount of alcohol that can be said to be safe for everyone. People choosing to drink must realise that there will always be some risk to their health and social well-being. The more alcohol consumed, the higher the risk. However, there are ways to minimise the risks.
The Australian Alcohol Guidelines are designed to give people an indication of the limits of alcohol consumption that are associated with an increasing risk to health and social well-being. The goal is to provide people with some knowledge to minimise the risk of alcohol-related harms occurring. The Guidelines are based on the Australian Standard Drink measure.

The risk of harm in the Short Term and the Long Term

People can drink excessively in a single day, or over a long period of time. Therefore the Guidelines talk about the risk of harm occurring in the Short-Term, and in the Long-Term.

In the Short Term, the risk to people’s health and social well-being comes from occasional drinking episodes that are confined into a single day. Short Term harms include injuries from violence, accidents, falls, having unprotected sex, and alcohol poisoning.
In the Long Term, the risk to people’s health and social well-being is associated with regular and repeated daily drinking, defined by the total number of standard drinks per week. Long Term harms include diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and brain damage.

Levels of Risk

In both the Short and Long Terms there are three levels of risk:

Low risk levels define a level of drinking at which there is a minimal risk of harm.
Risky levels are those at which risk of harm is greatly increased.
High risk drinking levels are those at which there is high risk of serious harm, and above this the risk increases rapidly.