I knew the figure was one they just made up: After 40 years of drinking all over the world and other experience, I know that everyone is different.

Peter Day, Doncaster, UK

a further wrinkle:
the overwhelming bulk of alcohol problems (liver "disease") are due to Vitamin B deficiency. supplement alcohol with Vit.B and cirrhosis does not occur.

the BMA a few years ago explicitly discussed this and the proposal to recommend that all british alcohol be supplemented with vitamin B. the evidence was overwhelming, and agreed unanimously to be so. yet they decided not to make the recommendation "as this would encourage alcoholism".

genuine alcoholics are not materially influenced by long-term health consequences when they seek refuge in a bottle. if they were, based on what the current received-wisdom is, they would not touch the stuff.

the dis-connected arrogance, bandwagon-ism, and sheer unprofessional irresponsibility of the BMA's position remains as breathtaking today as it was then.

Saltation, London,

Now we learn that levels of hazardous drinking in the UK were “plucked out of thin air” we must wonder if the mindless mantra, “there is no safe level of exposure to passive smoke” came from the same place! For it is not only an insult to our intelligence (Am I in danger ‘cos I once smelt some smoke?) it is also thoroughly fraudulent.

The internationally respected and acclaimed British Doctor’s Study ran for 50 yrs and repeatedly reported that over 20 yrs of ACTIVE smoking produced no ill effect. Following the Welsh Assembly’s triumphal and self congratulatory enactment of draconian anti smoking measures in July, I have repeatedly asked them to reconcile this finding with their near hysteria at the prospect of a little passive smoke. Although they do not dispute people may ACTIVELY smoke safely for 20 years, they stubbornly and ludicrously maintain there is “no safe level” of 2nd hand smoke!

Dai (Non smoker), Caerphilly/Hervey Bay, Wales/Aust

In the part of France that I live in they have a mid-day ‘menu de jour’ in many restaurants that includes a quarter litre of wine per person. Many of these restaurants do not have quarter litre bottles so the quantity put on the table is rounded up to the size of the container available. The French diners drink what they want and leave the rest. A lot of the resident English and all nearly all holidaymakers make a point of finishing off all the wine that has been served. This points to a fundamental difference in the attitude of the English to alcohol to that of the ‘café culture’ in Europe the Blair’s 24hour drinking reform was supposed to promote. Licensing laws were developed over the years that catered for the particular drinking habits of the British and it was a disaster waiting to happen to change them.

Not long ago our then oldest resident died at 106 and most of the local population seems to remain active well into their late 80’s. They all have a healthy regard to good food and drink with an emphasis on the social and woe betide anyone who tells them what is good or bad for them.

Many years ago the then vicar of the village in England in which I lived told me that excess in anything will be harmful but most things in moderation will invariably do you good.

David Huckett, Charante Maritime, France

Whilst the government is promoting lower levels of alcohol consumption their changes to licensing laws have not helped. Some, especially the young in this country will drink as long as they are allowed. The increased opening times have simply allowed them to drink for longer and moved the disruption caused from before midnight to constant drunken rampages in residential ares in the early hours of the morning. Some consistency would be greatly appreciated.

Eadger, London,

Great Britain is a wonderful country, but just as Americans have a problem with food, you British have a terrible problem with your culture of alcoholism. From the time I lived there I have observed that way too many good people spend too much time not only drinking, but talking about drinking, thinking about drinking, and just running one's life about when one is going to get the next drink. Bonding through drunkenness seems to be way too much a part of the shared culture. Drinking is fine if you control it--but way too many adults in Britain seem overly impressed with their ability to drink until they vomit, and that is just not healthy.

Alex, Lyndhurst, NJ

Christopher Record, a liver-disease specialist at Newcastle University, suggested that “it doesn’t really matter what the limits are”. “What we do know is, the more you drink, the greater the risk."

Surely much of the above suggests that, upto a point, the opposite is the case.

Cheers !!

Guy Johnson, Ipswich, Suffolk

These recommendations were based on the amount people told their doctors that they drank. Most people will tell their doctor that they drink(or smoke) less than they actually do. So these guidelines were purely based on annecdotal evidence given by patients who would not have wanted to tell the real truth about the amount they are drinking ,and therefore have no substance in reality. When I go to the recycling bins and see how many alcohol bottles are there , I wonder that anyone is still alive , if the safe alcohol levels were raelly valid.

Jane, Newcastle,

It seems to be a classic case of an elite who think that they can 'rule' others by way of their 'research' but really, in many instances, only enforcing their prejudices on others. !

Too many regulation, and too many bureaucrats, trying to rule the rest of us. The BBC also comes into this category.

John Charlesworth, Sleaford, Lincolnshire , UK

How many other so-called "health guidelines" such as this are based on such flimsy evidence? I seem to recall the advice of the medical profession varied acording to their own particular drinking or smoking habits and sitting in a consulting room with a doctor smoking heavily. I don't recall a drunk one, however, but every ailment under the sun seems to land at the door of smoking nowadays. Is it perhaps due to the decline in smoking that we now see attention turning to that other social pleasure, alcohol? How long until it, too, becomes a furtive habit, pursued behing closed doors in a solitary fashion before becoming illegal altogether. Think how much this might save our over-stretched health services though, allowing the money saved to be diverted to more deserving causes such as nuclear weapons, unnecessary wars, identity cards and all the other such obsessions of our political leaders nowadays.

Phil, Edinburgh,

I am well over pensionable age. I play 18 holes of golf at least four times a week. I am learning to ring church bells, not an easy thing to do. I have a load of other hobbies, one of which is settling down in the evening to share a couple of glasses of wine with my husband, who, I might add, is just as active as I am and a good deal older. This apparently dangerous habit has been going on for forty years. Moreover, if I am feeling feel a twinge or two, by the time the two glasses are consumed the twinges are gone and forgotten. So I say to all those bossy, interfering do-gooders, stop lecturing us!

Gay Sutton, Andover, Great Britain