“The Estonian Institute for Health Development (NIHD) campaign “Where is your limit” draws people’s attention to the fact that alcohol affects their lives and health. With the campaign, NIHD invites people to review the amount of alcohol they consume and consider the associated health risks.

“Alcohol is not an ordinary food product. Its consumption has negative consequences, which depend primarily on the amount a person drinks. Therefore, it is our responsibility to share evidence-based and adequate information about alcohol. In many countries, guidelines have been developed for low-risk limits, which are presented in weekly and daily quantities,” explained Anneli Sammel, the head of the NIHD Health Risk Prevention Center.

The purpose of the guidelines on low-risk alcohol limits is to define, based on scientific evidence, a low-risk level of alcohol consumption, which certainly does not mean safe consumption, but is relatively unlikely to cause harm. The current limits of low health risk used in Estonia date from 2009. They have now been updated, and alcohol levels have been reduced in line with recent scientific reviews and comparisons with other countries’ risk limits.

The new low-risk limits for a healthy adult are:

• men up to 14 alcohol units per week, an average of 2 alcohol units per day,
• women up to 7 alcohol units per week, an average of 1 alcohol unit per day.
• do not drink at the same time or during the weekend.”

Find more from Alkoinfo.ee (Estonia, April 2021)