Combating the Global Spread of Alcohol Dependency

A new study shows that one in 25 deaths around the world is caused by alcohol consumption, suggesting that booze is now as damaging to global health as tobacco was a decade ago.

According to a new study in the British medical journal the Lancet, as of 2004, 3.8 percent of deaths worldwide were the result of alcohol consumption. Alcohol-related causes of death include accidents, violence, poisoning, mouth and throat cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, suicide, stroke, and more.

Lead author Jürgen Rehm of the University of Toronto told TIME that the increase was primarily the result of an increased number of women drinking. He also said the increase in the rate of alcohol-related deaths is particularly troubling because the researchers took into account the cardiovascular benefits of moderate drinking and because the majority of the world’s population currently abstains from alcohol. But as India and China become wealthier, the death rate will probably increase further unless steps are taken to combat the problem.

“Alcohol consumption, particularly among women, is linked to economic growth,” said Rehm. “In countries like the U.K. and Norway, you have women consuming over 30% of [all the alcohol consumed]. In India, on the other extreme, women consume less than 5%. The higher the wealth of a country, the higher the percentage of women drinking alcohol.”

A separate study in the Lancet found that alcohol caused more than half of the deaths of Russian adults between 1990 and 2001, during the tumultuous years following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Globally, average alcohol consumption per person is about 1.6 gallons (6.2 liters) of pure ethanol a year, or about 12 units a week. The highest annual consumption per person was in Europe, with 3.1 gallons (11.9 liters) of ethanol (21.5 units per week). North America’s average is 2.5 gallons (9.4 liters) a year (18 units per week) and 0.2 gallons (0.7 liters) a year (1.3 units a week) in the eastern Meditteranean.

“Globally, the effect of alcohol on the burden of disease if about the same size as that of smoking in 2000,” said Rehm. Despite the prevalence of tobacco in the world, alcohol is ranked the number-one risk factor in 27 emerging economies.

Rehm said the most cost-effective way to control alcohol-related harms is to raise the price of alcohol. “There’s already evidence that this works,” he said. For example, in France and Italy, alcohol consumption has steadily declined over the past 25 years as the price of drinks has gone up. “Despite all stereotypes, Italy now has the lowest consumption of any European country,” Rehm said. “And it’s largely because alcohol is relatively expensive.”

Rehm added that while an end to deaths and disability caused by alcohol is in sight, it is a frustratingly difficult goal to reach. “The solution can only be to reduce the overall amount of drinking,” he said. “But that’s pretty hard to do—to get humanity to learn to drink one or two units a day, and never more.”