Alcohol is a toxic substance that can harm almost any system or organ of the body, and is related to more than 60 different disorders with short and long term consequences. For many conditions there is an increasing risk with increasing levels of alcohol consumption, with no evidence of a threshold effect below which alcohol can be regarded as entirely risk free. Alcohol use and a pattern of binge drinking are associated with an increased risk to the individual of negative social consequences, reduced work performance, injuries, drink driving accidents, brain damage, alcohol dependence, suicide, stroke, irregular heart rhythms, coronary heart disease, sexually transmitted diseases, and premature death. Alcohol use and a pattern of binge drinking are associated with an increased risk to people other than the drinker (third party harm) including negative social consequences, injuries at work, violence and crime, interpersonal violence, accidents from others’ drink driving, sexually transmitted diseases, and to the unborn child, a range of neuro-behavioural deficits running through to adolescence and with lifelong consequences.