Insufficient attention has been given to the timing of alcohol intake in relation to paracetamol consumption and toxicity in clinical reports. If the same circumstances apply in man as in animals, alcohol could increase or decrease the toxicity of paracetamol, or have no effect, depending on the timing and duration of alcohol consumption. In some reports purporting to show that chronic alcoholics are at increased risk of paracetamol hepatotoxicity, alcohol seems to have been taken acutely at or about the same time as the paracetamol . In these cases, the alcohol should have reduced paracetamol toxicity rather than enhanced it as claimed!