THE perils of anyone with a fondness for alcohol working in the drinks trade is self-evident but the risk is considerably heightened should an individual be in control of a large factory manufacturing the potentially lethal liquid.

A news agency report from Moscow this week recorded the death of one Vladimir Yamnikov, chief executive at Moscow's Kristall vodka factory, one of the main producers of Russia's favourite tipple.

Yamnikov had run the drinks group since Soviet days, producing a range of well known brand names, including Stolichnaya vodka. His death, at what in western terms was a young 56, was two years short of the average Russian male life expectancy, due in part to an average male consumption of about a half pint of vodka a day. Despite his business success Yamnikov was seemingly very much the average Russian, the death certificate recording his demise as due to cirrhosis of the liver.