Abstract

Advice about low but widespread health and lifestyle risks is difficult for public health bodies to get right. Geoffrey Rose’s “prevention paradox” explains how these risks can look different from a public health and an individual’s point of view. Taking the case study of a UK media controversy from 2007 to 2008 about apparently conflicting risk advice from two public health bodies about the recommended limits of alcohol during pregnancy, this chapter will examine how the prevention paradox can play out in public and explain the delicate public position public health advice can find itself.