Parents who allow their children alcohol at home may be increasing the chances of future drinking problems, says England’s chief medical officer.

Sir Liam Donaldson accused some parents of a “laissez-faire” approach and said “. Letting children taste alcohol to ready them for adulthood was “misguided

Evidence showed that this could lead to binge drinking in later life, he said. BBC.

Evidence – I’ve not the time needed too completely refute the evidence – personally I don’t accept Donaldson’s accusation, a brief look at the details as provided back up my instincts.

Firstly looking at the Chief Medical Officers Guidance and looking for any references I found this.

The work to support the Department of Health in producing this report has been carried out by Professor Mark Bellis and his team at the Centre for Public Health, Liverpool John Moores University. Department of Health.

So off to the John Moores University website where there are 60 reports on alcohol abuse alone – I looked through a few but couldn’t identify which reports might have been used.

So back to the Guidance where I downloaded the Guidance on the consumption of alcohol by children and young people and looked at section 6 references the first reference to Professor Bellis is.

Bellis MA, Hughes K, Morleo M, et al (2007) Predictors of risky alcohol consumption in schoolchildren and their implications for preventing alcohol-related harm. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy 2:15.

The first thing that strikes me is the report was published two years ago, no wonder I didn’t locate it on the University website. Now looking at the Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, And Policy website we find the report Predictors of risky alcohol consumption in schoolchildren and their implications for preventing alcohol-related harm, which concludes.

Although previous studies have examined predictors of risky drinking, our analyses of access to alcohol and youth income have highlighted eradicating underage alcohol sales and increased understanding of children’s spending as key considerations in reducing risky alcohol use. Parental provision of alcohol to children in a family environment may also be important in establishing child-parent dialogues on alcohol and moderating youth consumption. However, this will require supporting parents to ensure they develop only moderate drinking behaviours in their children and only when appropriate. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy.

Now how does that back up Donaldson’s claims – still I’ve a full time job to do and have only been able to carry out the most cursory investigation – but it didn’t take much using Donaldson’s own references to reach a different conclusion – Donaldson appears to be manipulating evidence to meet his own political agenda.