Alcohol Abuse and Toxicity of Alcoholic Beverages in Russia: Recent history

The purpose of this mini-review is discussion of health-related aspects of alcohol consumption in Russia: toxicity of some legally sold alcoholic beverages, use of the anti-alcohol theme to distract public attention from drawbacks of the public health, property-related and other offences against alcohol-dependent people. Some governmental campaigns indirectly contributed to heavier intoxications and consumption of surrogates. The anti-alcohol campaign (1985-1988), and the predictable increase in the alcohol consumption thereafter, destabilized the society thus facilitating the economical reforms of the 1990s. The alcohol-related mortality temporarily decreased during the campaign; but the incidence of poisonings by surrogates was growing. After the end of the campaign, alcoholic beverages have become easily available and relatively cheap, while their quality worsened. The state alcohol monopoly was revoked in 1992. After that, technical alcohol, synthetic or cellulosic, gained access to the beverage market: mixed with water, it was sold as vodka, added to beer, wine and other drinks. The incidence of poisonings by legally sold beverages increased during the early 1990s, while the mortality increase outstripped the alcohol consumption. The large-scale outbreak of poisonings in 2006 was caused by disinfectant sold in vodka bottles. Some cases were probably caused by organochlorides. However, the conclusion is optimistic: the decrease in mortality in Russia since 2006 may be related to improvements in the healthcare, better quality of alcoholic beverages, and decline in the heavy binge drinking of vodka, partly replaced by the moderate consumption of beer. Better supervision of sold alcoholic products by authorities is necessary.