Drinking just got a little riskier.

In October, the National Health and Medical Research Council released a draft version of its revised guidelines for low-risk drinking. In the past, NHMRC guidelines have defined low-, medium- and high-risk drinking levels, but the latest guidelines take a new approach, defining a level of drinking behaviour at which a person has a one in 100 chance of experiencing alcohol-related injury, disease or death over their lifetime. For adults--both men and women--this risk level is now set at two or fewer standard drinks per day. For pregnant women and all young people aged under 15 years, not drinking at all is recommended as the 'safest option'. While the guidelines do not encourage 15-17-year-olds to drink, the HMRC recommends that any alcohol consumed by this age group should be done under adult supervision and according to the adult guidelines. According to Professor Jon Currie, director of addiction medicine at St Vincent's Health, evidence from over 400 international studies indicates that the risk of alcohol-related harm 'starts to rise very sharply' when people consume more than two standard drinks per day. Although Deakin University health psychology professor John Toumbourou welcomes the draft guidelines, he believes that the guidelines for teenagers should make reference to frequency of alcohol consumption. 'There is actually evidence that the frequency of drinking in adolescence might be the thing that is most important with respect to establishing habits of drinking later in life,' he said (Age 'Insight' section, 13/10/07, p.2).