The National Alcohol Association (NAA) has released figures on deaths due to alcohol poisoning for January-May 2002. Over the first five months of the year 18,224 people died throughout Russia (against 16,858 people over the same period of last year). The Central federal district recorded the most deaths, with 4,933 people dying there. The Trans-Volga district was second, with 4,160 deaths; and the Siberian district third, with 3,122; next was the North-Western district with 2,424; the Urals district with 1,722; the Southern federal district with 1,074; and the Far Eastern federal district with 789 deaths.
The Moscow region has the highest number of deaths from alcohol poisoning: 1,111 people (against 1,015 last year). The Perm region is the second, with 864 (794 last year). In the Nentsk autonomous district only one person died this year, against 17 in 2001. Just a comparison: over less than two years of the first war in Chechnya, 35,700 people died, including civilians.
It is an open secret that Russians drink a great deal. However, it is strange that there is no official data on how much alcohol Russian citizens consume. According to Dr. Alexander Nemtsov, head of the informatics and systems research department at the Moscow Psychiatry Institute, the average annual level of alcohol consumption in 1970-1999 was 14.6 liters per person. It is no coincidence that even according to the official figures, there are 1,500-2,000 alcoholics per 100,000 people. Experts say the real number is three to four times higher.
Sociologists found another very important pattern: deaths from alcohol poisoning are closely connected with the suicide rate among alcoholics.
Alexander Nemtsov noted, "The level of both phenomena fell during the anti-alcohol campaign and sharply rose in the period of the market reforms. From 1991 to 1994 the number of suicides rose 58.9% and the number of deaths caused by alcohol poisoning grew by 236.5%."
An increase of one liter in average per capita alcohol consumption adds eight male suicides per 100,000 men, and one female suicide per 100,000 women. Overall, it makes 4.5 suicides per 100,000 people.
By the way, some researchers think that in Russia these rates greatly depend on the social situation. For instance, what is the explanation for the paradoxical situation in recent years: a consistently high number of discontented people, but a low number of people actively protesting? Alexander Kinsburgsky, Ph. D. in Philosophy, say a possible reason may be that "social discontent is expressed in various kinds of antisocial behavior, such as alcoholism, crime, or suicide."
On way or another, the near future appears rather pessimistic. Nemtsov says, "Unfortunately, we have to admit that the people of Russia do not realize the scale of deaths due to widespread heavy drinking, and consider it a natural process. That is the main thing which kills hope." (Translated by Arina Yevtikhova )
_________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com