New Studies Reveal Alcohol’s Destructive Influence Worldwide

Around the country and around the world, public health officials are increasingly raising a warning cry about the incredible toll that alcohol abuse takes on society.

A report last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that excessive alcohol use accounts for 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults ages 20-64.

Nationwide, that’s 88,000 deaths per year, each year from 2006-10.

“Excessive alcohol use is a leading cause of preventable death that kills many Americans in the prime of their lives,” said Ursula E. Bauer, the CDC's director of chronic disease prevention and health promotion. “We need to redouble our efforts to implement scientifically proven public health approaches to reduce this tragic loss of life and the huge economic costs that result.”

The CDC isn’t the only government public health agency cataloging alcohol’s impact. In May, the World Health Organization released its “Global status report on alcohol and health 2014” with country-by-country impacts for 194 WHO member states.

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