-By Oriade Ayomide
A study carried out in Russia has attributed high number of early deaths in the countryto high consumption of alcohol particularly the Vodka brand. The study regarded as the largest of its kind in Russia’s history had researchers from the Russian Cancer Centre in Moscow, Oxford University in the UK and the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The result of the study which tracked the drinking patterns of 151,000 adults in three Russian cities for up to 10 years has it that 25% of Russian men die before they are 55, and most of the deaths are down to alcohol. Causes of death include liver disease and alcohol poisoning. Many also die in accidents or after getting into fights.During that time, 8,000 of them died. The researchers also drew on previous studies in which families of 49,000 people who had died were asked about their loved ones’ drinking habits.
According to the Study co-author Prof Sir Richard Peto, from the University of Oxford, “Russian death rates have fluctuated wildly over the last 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.”
It would be recalled that the Russian government in July 2012 placed a ban on advertisement of alcohol in the media.
