Alcohol Consumption Claims Nearly 800,000 Lives in Europe Annually

(MENAFN) Alcohol consumption is claiming approximately 800,000 lives across Europe each year—representing one in eleven total deaths—according to a newly released World Health Organization report.

In a fact sheet issued this week, the WHO declared that Europe maintains "the highest alcohol consumption levels globally," with drinking serving as a substantial driver of preventable deaths and physical harm.

Drawing from 2019 statistics—the most recent data set accessible—the agency determined that nearly 145,000 injury-related fatalities throughout the region stemmed directly from alcohol use. Self-harm, traffic collisions, and accidental falls constituted the predominant categories.

The World Health Organization emphasized that alcohol consumption correlates strongly with interpersonal violence, encompassing physical assaults and household abuse, designating it as a principal catalyst for violent injury mortality continent-wide.

Younger demographics face heightened vulnerability, as alcohol disrupts neurological development and judgment capacity during teenage years and emerging adulthood. The WHO indicated that drinking compromises memory retention and cognitive learning capabilities while elevating risks for enduring consequences, including addiction disorders and psychiatric complications.

For adolescents and young adults specifically, alcohol persists as a dominant risk factor underlying injury-related disability and early death.

"Alcohol is a toxic substance that not only causes seven types of cancer and other noncommunicable diseases, but also impairs judgment and self-control, slows reaction times, reduces coordination and promotes risk-taking behavior," said Carina Ferreira-Borges, Regional Adviser for Alcohol, Illicit Drugs and Prison Health at WHO/Europe. "This is why it is implicated in so many preventable injuries and injury deaths."

Eastern European nations represent roughly half of all alcohol-related injury deaths, contrasted with fewer than 20% in western and southern subregions, according to the findings.

In Russia, consumption patterns have transformed dramatically over twenty years, with the proportion of abstainers nearly doubling based on contemporary surveys. Evidence additionally reveals that beer—not vodka—remains the beverage of choice among drinkers.

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