The latest issue of the premier British medical journal, Lancet, carries a report from the University of Toronto describing the alarming increase in alcohol-related illness and death in recent years.  The report describes the global burden as large enough to compare with the rate of death and disease caused by smoking tobacco in 2000.

Lead researcher, Dr. Jurgen Rehm, says the greatest concern is in developing nations, where the alcohol-attributable disease level is highest among the poorest populations.  The burden of disease is growing fastest in India and China but women in general are drinking more now than they were in 2000, adding to the global burden.

Many injuries are sustained as a result of alcohol consumption but excess drinking also increases the drinker’s risk of liver diseases, depression, and stroke.  Some cancers, including colorectal, mouth, throat, and breast cancers, have been linked to alcohol consumption, too.

Who’s drinking?  According to Rehm’s report:

• On a worldwide, per capita, basis, we all consume an average of 12 units each week.
• In just Europe, the average consumption rate is 21.5 units each week.
• Throughout the Americas, 17 units per week are consumed.
• In the Middle East, where consumption is lowest, the weekly average is only 1.3 units per week.

These per-capita figures are averages.  Most adults actually do not drink at all.  Rehm’s report indicates 45% of all men and 66% of all women abstain from alcohol most, if not all, of their lives.

Five percent of all years lived with disability are attributed to alcohol consumption.  These disabilities affect:

• Younger people more often than older people.
• 34% of all disabled individuals between 15 and 29 years of age.
• 31% of those between 30 and 44.
• 22% of those between 45 and 59.

In 2004, the most recent year such data is available for analysis, 3.8% of all deaths in the world were related to alcohol.  That percentage is equivalent to one in every 25 deaths.

Who’s dying because of excess alcohol consumption?

• Men are five times more likely than women to die due to causes traced to alcohol.
• In Europe, 10% of all deaths involve alcohol.
• In the former Soviet Union countries of Europe, one in every seven deaths (15%) is attributed to alcohol.
• In England, the alcohol-related death rate has climbed by one-fifth since 2000.

The study is a “global wake-up call,” according to Professor Ian Gilmore, who is president of the Royal College of Physicians and chairs the Alcohol Health Alliance UK.  He suggests immediate price increases, reduced availability, and advertising bans as means of reversing the harm caused by alcohol consumption.

Don Shenker, chief executive officer of Alcohol Concern, says evidence proves there’s more harm caused where alcohol consumption is highest.  Shenker agrees with the alcohol-control measures identified by Gilmore.