Consultation on new Canadian alcohol guidelines now open

Led by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, the update of Canada’s Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines is now open for public consultation. Three CISUR researchers—director Tim Naimi and scientists Adam Sherk and Tim Stockwell—were part of the expert advisory panel that created the guidelines.

The suggested guidelines are based on the latest scientific evidence on alcohol's health effects. The risks increase with each drink you take; moderate risk is in the 3-6 drink/week range.

A graphic with a headline that reads "The risk of alcohol-caused consequences increases with the number of drinks you have per week." Along the bottom, there is an illustration of stacked drink glasses increasing from left to right. It starts with an empty glass saying "no risk," then 1& 2 glasses in "low risk," then 3-6 glasses in moderate risk, then 7+ in "increasing risk."
From the Update of Canada’s Low-Risk Alcohol Drinking Guidelines: Final Report for Public Consultation: this graphic illustrates the increasing risk of alcohol-related consequences based on how many drinks one has per week.

 

The science is clear: when it comes to alcohol and health, less is better.

-Dr. Tim Naimi, director, CISUR

The public consulation is open until September 23, 2022.

The technical summary of the proposed guidelines recommend that Health Canada "require, through regulation, the mandatory labelling of all alcoholic beverages to list the number of standard drinks in a container, the Guidance on Alcohol and Health, health warnings and nutrition information." Researchers from CISUR's Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation (CAPE) Project have recently released guidance on evidence-based labelling for alcohol. 

Researchers from CISUR and CAMH have also written the Canadian government asking them to enact evidence-based labels on alcohol containers, as have a group of Canadian physicians.