Fury erupted today over the World Health Organization's advice that women of child-bearing age should not drink alcohol.
Draft guidance from the agency says 'appropriate attention' should be given to the prevention of drinking in children, mothers-to-be and women of child-bearing age.
Child-bearing age is generally assumed to begin in the mid-teens and stretch to around 50, when women start to go through the menopause.
Last night the drinks industry described the proposal — which some claimed amounted nearly to a ban on drinking for women — as sexist and 'paternalistic'.
Now an alcohol researcher has hit out at the guidance, saying any ban on women drinking would be 'completely disproportionate' to their risk.
Colin Angus, from Sheffield University, told MailOnline he would be 'amazed' if the draft guidance goes through.
And Hannah Ord, a researcher at the Adam Smith Institute, branded the move 'ludicrous and sexist' and said it would put women off following other health advice.
Researchers and industry insiders lashed out at the WHO's suggestion that women shouldn't drink alcohol until they hit the menopause in their 40s or 50s because they might harm unborn babies (stock image)
'The suggestion that we should actively prevent a substantial proportion of women from drinking is completely at odds with the balance of the risks of drinking and restrictions on personal freedom that we see in almost any country in the world,' said Mr Angus, a senior research fellow who specialises on alcohol.
'There are specific ethical issues around the fact that drinking in pregnancy has a detrimental effect on somebody other than the drinker — their unborn child.
'And the highest risk period for drinking is in the first few weeks of pregnancy when many women may not yet be aware they are pregnant.'
For this reason, health chiefs recommend that women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant should not drink any alcohol.
Mr Angus added: 'These risks need to be balanced with concerns about policing women's bodies and restricting their civil liberties.
'The suggestion we prevent women from drinking seems to me to be completely disproportionate.'
The WHO guidance, released in the body's Global Alcohol Action Plan, calls on countries to raise awareness of alcohol-related harm and its harmful use.
It said that 'one of the most dramatic manifestations of harm' is to babies, and the development of foetal alcohol disorders.
Symptoms in children exposed to alcohol in the womb can include poor growth, distinct facial features and learning and behavioural problems.
The plan suggests such harms could be publicised through an international 'world no alcohol day/week'.
Hannah Ord, a researcher at the free market Adam Smith Institute think-tank, said the policy would be 'dragging us back into the past'.
She said: 'Not only is this an impractical paternalistic policy but this ridiculous overreach risks turning off young women from all their other sensible health messages.
'Restricting women’s rights to drink alcohol on the chance that that women may at some point decide to have children is ludicrous, sexist and impossible to actually implement - and
