Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Third Week Blog... International

Study blames alcohol for half of 1990s Russian deaths

By DOUGLAS BIRCH

The Associated Press


An international team of health researchers have been hosting a study showing that over half of Russia's deaths are due to drinking.  The findings were off a survey of 49,000 deaths between 1990 and 2001.  The study included 3 industrial towns with 1990 Russian mortality patterns.  The study is to find what the causes of spike in mortality among Russians.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/1282973.html

It is crazy to think that these deaths could've been prevented.  But by the decisions of these people, their lives were cut short.  I am also somewhat surprised that Russia's statistics were so high.  I understand their laws are more lax than ours, so in a way it does make sense.  But perhaps if they would've had laws restricting alcohol these statistics would vary.
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2 comments:

  1. ColinJuly 2, 2009 at 12:10 AM

    I think Russia is one of those places where people drink beer instead of water because the water tends to be pretty low quality. I've always had the impression that places where that is true have more drinking responsibility than the United States. I'm not sure if that's completely right, but I would be interested to see the death rate in the United States caused by alcohol.

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  2. Kent GrahamJuly 5, 2009 at 7:59 PM

    Russians drink vodka because they're Russians. It's part of the nation's psyche. How else can they deal with the winters, the poverty -- and the political turmoil that has beset them since the end of the Soviet Union?

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