SWEDEN: When it comes to causing death and disability, alcoholic drinks are as bad as tobacco and high blood pressure, according to a new study.
Alcohol is linked to more than 60 different medical conditions, including oral, liver and breast cancers, heart disease, stroke and cirrhosis. It also increases the risk of car accidents, drowning, falls and homicides.
Prof Robin Room of Stockholm University in Sweden said: "Overall, 4 per cent of the global burden of disease is attributable to alcohol, which accounts for about as much death and disability globally as tobacco and hypertension." By comparison, tobacco accounted for 4.1 per cent and high blood pressure 4.4 per cent.
"Alcohol is a substantial health problem in the world," he added. "It is a particular problem in the developing countries that are well off and in the developed world."
In a review of alcohol and public health published in the Lancet medical journal, Prof Room and his colleagues in Canada and the United States assessed the problems caused by alcohol and ways of controlling alcohol abuse.
They said alcohol posed problems not only to drinkers but also to people around them by increasing the risk of violence and injury. Consumption and the patterns of drinking had an impact on alcohol-related illnesses and deaths.
Tobacco may cause more deaths, but they are generally in older people compared with deaths from alcohol. Prof Room said when the two were compared on the basis of years of life lost, they are about equivalent.
Evidence has shown that increasing the price of alcohol and limiting its availability would lower consumption and risks to health. The researchers estimated that a 10 per cent rise in British alcohol prices could reduce deaths from alcohol dependence and poisoning by 28.8 per cent in men and 37.4 per cent in women.
The professor and his colleagues also suggested there should be an international agreement on alcohol marketing, similar to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.- Reuters