The politics of health risk promotion: 'Passive drinking': A 'good lie' too far?

This article reflects on UK Chief Medical Officer's (CMO) 2009 announcement that alcohol abuse should be understood as a problem of 'passive drinking'. This was an attempt to instrumentally problematise drinking drawing on the successful campaign against 'passive smoking'. An implausible term that originated as an anti-state interventionist joke, both 'passive drinking's' lack of impact but also the lack of criticism its revelation attracted are considered. This curious episode is explained in relation to the CMO's distinctive precautionary style, the growing campaign against alcohol in the UK and a wider acceptance of a contemporary politics of health risk where dramatisation has become relatively routine. Despite the failure of this initiative, a widely drawn 'second hand effects' case against alcohol persists. More generally, risk/harm framed argument has filled the vacuum left by the discrediting of moral-based approaches and recast a similarly polarised approach to a socially complex practice. This episode indicates a pragmatic 'good lie' approach toward lifestyle health risk promotion legitimised by a superficial 'evidence based' foundation. © 2009 Taylor & Francis.