Health authorities in Canada have released new guidelines on alcohol consumption, recommending one to two standard drinks per week as "low risk".
What do Australia's guidelines say?
Australia's guidelines to reduce the risks associated with drinking alcohol were revised in December 2020. They recommend healthy men and women should drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than four on any one day.
"The less you drink, the lower your risk of harm from alcohol," they state.
Professor Kuntsche said these revised guidelines are more restrictive than the previous ones.
"But countries like Canada are further ahead in that game. I really welcome their approach towards even more conservative guidelines," he said.
Ms Hughes said the 2020 revisions reflect an "enormous piece of work" and that Cancer Council is not calling for a review.
Calls for mandatory alcohol labelling
The report also recommends mandatory labelling of all alcoholic beverages with health warnings.
It states evidence has shown that added warnings can increase public awareness of the causal link with cancer and reduce consumption.
Professor Pettigrew said this has been proposed for some time in Australia but has yet to come to fruition.
"It took more than a decade to get a pregnancy warning label approved for alcoholic beverages in Australia," she said, adding plans are currently underway to implement warnings on alcoholic beverages in Europe.
"There is much to gained from ensuring drinkers are informed," she said.
Ms Hughes said Cancer Council is aware of the role warning labels can play in improving community awareness, but that this shouldn't be the only way consumers are made aware of alcohol-related risks. "It's not just the label - that would need to be part of a bigger strategy to raise awareness of alcohol-related harms," she said.
What's next for Australia?
Professor Pettigrew said she hopes Australia "will continue to move in the same direction with our guidelines to ensure the community understands the risks associated with alcohol consumption".
For Professor Kuntsche, ongoing discussion about guidelines and new evidence is crucial to change drinking norms in the long run.
"When it comes to alcohol, one thing that should not be forgotten is we don't have to drink. But we have our consumption norms. And that's the big problem," he said.
Analysis from the 2019 National Drug Strategy Household Survey found that about three in four Australians aged 14 and over had consumed alcohol in the previous 12 months.
Almost one in two people (45 per cent) approved of regular use of alcohol by adults - higher than for any other drug.
"If we keep the discussion going, I hope the cultural norms will shift towards more restrictive consumption norms - and in this context, the guidelines are very important," he said.
Ms Hughes said raising awareness of the guidelines and investing in promotion is crucial. "There is still a big way to go to tackle the alcohol culture in Australia," she said.
"Alcohol is identified as a priority substance in the National Drug Strategy, with the consumption of alcohol contributing toward a range of adverse health outcomes, and significantly increasing Australia's burden of disease," it said.
