
	Home > Policy Issues > Drinking Guidelines		Search

Drinking Guidelines

An understanding of the potential for benefits and risks associated with alcohol consumption is an important tool for preventing harm. Meaningful information on alcohol, based on a thorough and balanced review of the scientific evidence—biomedical as well as psychosocial—can provide individuals with a basis for making decisions about their own drinking. It equips them with knowledge about the consequences of different drinking patterns and the ability to change those if that is deemed appropriate.

Governments and quasi-governmental organizations in a number of countries around the world provide for their adult citizens (those above the legal drinking age) information as a guide to low-risk and responsible alcohol consumption. These guidelines are intended to educate the public and include information about potential outcomes at different consumption levels and for different patterns of drinking.

Part of these guidelines includes a definition of a standard drink, defined in terms of grams of ethanol, and often expressed in the common commercial terms for the lay person. Guidelines also include different information for men and women, and some pay particular attention to groups of individuals considered at increased risk and to activities where particular advice about drinking may be necessary.

Key Facts and Issues
Blue Book Module: Drinking Guidelines (128 KB .pdf)
Table: International Drinking Guidelines
Table: International Guidelines on Drinking During Pregnancy
Table: Standard Alcohol Units
Further Resources

small blue book logo

ICAP Blue Book
Practical Guides for Alcohol Policy
and Prevention Approaches

The ICAP Blue Book offers a comprehensive guide to the key issues in alcohol policy development, and an integrated approach to prevention. It draws upon the best available research and experience from around the world.

As a policy guide, the ICAP Blue Book is based on three principles:

drinking patterns and their outcomes as a sound scientific basis for policy development;

targeted interventions that address specific "at-risk" populations, potentially harmful contexts and drinking patterns;

partnerships that allow the inclusion of the public and private sectors, the community and civil society all working towards a common goal.

It is intended as a tool to assist those seeking guidance in developing policy and prevention approaches, be they governments, intergovernmental organizations, public health officials and specialists, researchers, non-governmental organizations, the beverage alcohol industry and its related bodies, or civil society organizations interested in alcohol policy development.

To assist stakeholders in using the Blue Book to develop approaches to individual issues or comprehensive alcohol policies at the local or national level, a simple protocol, the Alcohol Policy Seminar (APS), has been developed. Information about the APS, its implementation, and ICAP’s partners in its development is available at www.alcoholseminar.org.

Click here for the ICAP Blue Book Module on Drinking Guidelines. (128 KB .pdf)

Click here for the entire ICAP Blue Book.

Related ICAP Blue Book Modules include:

Standard Drinks (121 KB .pdf)

Women and Alcohol (117 KB .pdf)

Drinking and Pregnancy (104 KB .pdf)