by DANIEL BATES

Last updated at 08:37 20 October 2007

Offical guidelines on safe alcohol limits were 'plucked out of the air' and overwhelming scientific evidence suggests they should be raised, it's been claimed.

The recommended limits, which have shaped health policy for the past 20 years, had no scientific basis, a member of the panel that drew them up admitted.

Subsequent studies showed that guidelines should be higher - but were ignored by successive governments.

The startling revelation comes in the week that millions of middle class drinkers were told by a Government report they were consuming 'hazardous' levels of alcohol.

But that was based on the original recommendation of 21 units of alcohol for men and 14 for women.

These were drawn up by the Royal College of Physicians in 1987 in its first significant report into alcohol misuse, the most authoritative study at the time.

The RCP found that illnesses such as liver disease, heart attacks and infertility were linked to excessive drinking.

But when faced with defining safe guidelines they hit a roadblock, admitted former panel member Richard Smith.

He said that during discussions the committee's epidemiologist David Barker conceded 'it's impossible to say what's safe and what isn't' because 'we don't have any data whatsoever'. Mr

Smith, a former editor of the British Medical Journal, said that panel members thought they needed to make some sort of recommendation.

'So those limits were really plucked out of the air. They weren't really based on any firm evidence at all. It was a sort of intelligent guess by a committee,' he told the Times newspaper.

The findings, despite their lessthan scientific origins, had a profound impact on health policy. Yet at the same time studies found that men drinking between 21 and 30 units of alcohol a week had the lowest mortality out of anyone in Britain.

One unit of alcohol is approximately equivalent to half a pint of ordinary strength beer, lager or cider. A 25ml measure of spirits, such as gin or vodka, or a 50ml measure of fortified wine such as sherry or port is also one unit.

By 1994 five studies had been published showing reasonable amounts of alcohol could even protect against heart disease.

Arguably the most significant was a World Health Organisation study published in 2000.

It said that men who drank less than 35 units a week were at low risk of harm, 36-52 at medium risk and above 53 at high risk.

For women, less than 17.5 units was a low risk, medium was 18-35 and high risk was above 36.

Yesterday it also emerged that a coalition of health organisations is launching a campaign to force a 10 per cent increase in alcohol taxation.

The group of 21 bodies, headed by the RCP, will form the Alcohol Health Alliance.