BMJ 1996;312:507 (24 February)

Letters

Civil servants should be congratulated for rejecting "whole population theory"

EDITOR,--Griffith Edwards's editorial1 criticising the Department of Health's report Sensible Drinking2 is misleading in asserting that the recommendation to raise the "safe" limits of alcohol consumption "was unsupported by either new analysis or new evidence." On the contrary, the report states quite explicitly, citing appropriate references, that the change in policy is based on a rejection of the "whole population theory" as promulgated most recently by a joint committee of the royal colleges chaired by Professor Michael Marmot. The specific question that needs to be addressed is whether the committee that produced the report was right to do this.

Although apparently representing the "current medical consensus," at least among public health academics, the whole population theory--otherwise known as the "population strategy"--is both scientifically and ethically highly contentious.3 The fundamental premise seems to be that the number of problem drinkers can be influenced by a small shift downwards in the average . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Sensible drinking
Griffith Edwards
BMJ 1996 312: 1. [Extract] [Full Text]

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