Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
VODKA IS THE primary factor in the high and sharply fluctuating death rates among Russian men.
That’s according to a new study published today in The Lancet journal which asked 151,000 people how much vodka they drank, then followed them for up to a decade, during which 8,000 had died.
At present, one in four Russian men die before the age of 55. This is compared to a rate of 7 per cent of men in the UK with alcohol and tobacco use the main cause of the difference in premature mortality.
The study jointly carried out by the Russian Cancer Research Centre in Moscow, Oxford University and the WHO with co-author Professor Sir Richard Peto from Oxford saying that the changing availability of alcohol in Russia can be seen to have influenced premature death rates:
Russian death rates have fluctuated wildly over the past 30 years as alcohol restrictions and social stability varied under Presidents Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin, and the main thing driving these wild fluctuations in death was vodka. This has been shown in retrospective studies, and now we’ve confirmed it in a big, reliable prospective study.
A similar study carried out five years ago which looked back at causes of death over a period of time also found similar results.
Both studies found much higher risks of death in men who drank three or more bottles of vodka a week than in men who drank less than one bottle a week.
The excess mortality among heavy drinkers was mainly from alcohol poisoning, accidents, violence, suicide, and eight particular categories of disease.
Study leader Professor David Zaridze from the Russian Cancer Research Centre in Moscow says that moderate alcohol controls introduced in 2006 have shown how curbing hazardous drinking can help.
“People who drink spirits in hazardous ways greatly reduce their risk of premature death as soon as they stop,” he said.
The average life expectancy of a man in Russia is 64 years-of-age, ranking among the lowest 50 countries in the world, so researchers have cautioned that further controls are needed.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
You can’t cut cut and cut and expect the same results. This is a pure cause from a cheap government
Yes you can if there is huge inefficiency. The cuts were financially necessary but the reorganisation hasn’t happened. Listen to the various Garda units…..
War on drugs require large large budgets and lots and lots of man in woman in blue. Self feeding and extremely lucrative cycle. ( Not for the taxpayer, user, addict or Guarda of course)
Really really shocked ‘respectable’ families are affected. Who would have guessed people with lots of money dabble in drugs. Keep fighting windmills with all we got, it’s important!!
a sensible drugs policy which keeps profits and victims away from cartels is still many years away
It’s a police service now not a police force. More about PR than fighting crime.
Until you stop criminalising the issue will you see positive results, but that makes too much sense to happen in Ireland.
What?
This is the effect of public sector cuts and no investment in resources for 6 yrs . Government has buried their heads in the sand and pray nothing happens. Not just Guards , firefighters nurses, ,ambluance,prison service,customs,army etc all destroyed because of cuts
Have you done a Rip Von Winkle? The Gardai are an administrative and management mess. Until there is reform it would be madness to put more money in.
They have no support. Not long enough prison terms, no prison spaces( we replaced a jail in cork with 20 less places), and legal lobby are happy as the repeat offenders are their main customers.
Legalise and regulate the trade entirely and offer safe spaces for addicts to go – that will resolve this issue.
Has anyone been around Talbot Street / Gardiner Street lately.
It’s like the zombie apocalypse with the junkies around there.
And how will legalising it reduce the amount of addicts?
It won’t – it will reduce the amount of crime associated though.
How? Junkies will still need to steal etc to afford their fix. Unless it goes on HSE? They can already get methadone.
Until heroin becomes a middle class issue the establishment simply don’t care.
have your say