[Health education about alcohol; need to abandon a purely quantitative message]

In health education, the foundations of the classic message of moderate alcohol consumption, based on the notion that there exist safe thresholds below which one can drink without danger, have become outdated. This is due to various factors: the discovery of additional routes for the oxidation of alcohol into acetaldehyde; epidemiological studies on the relationship between dose and effect that have challenged classic thresholds; and, finally, the rising emphasis on the role played by background, now better understood because of the opening of new physiological perspectives and evidence of the involvement of genetic factors. This role has led to an underling of the notions of vulnerability and inequality in relation to alcohol. The message of health education must therefore be one of "alcohol risk", a message combining both the factor of quantity ingested and the factor of background. Without giving rise to prohibitionist attitudes, it should lead to responsible individual behavior where alcohol is concerned.