Consumption of Hard Liquor in U.S. Reaches a 30-Year Low

Americans’ consumption of hard liquor has fallen to its lowest level in three decades, federal health researchers reported Friday.

The national Centers for Disease Control reported that per capita consumption of distilled spirits in 1986, the last year for which complete statistics are available, was the lowest since 1959.

The average American drank 0.85 gallons of spirits in 1986, the lowest since 1959’s 0.84 gallons, according to researcher Darryl Bertolucci of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration.

Preliminary statistics indicate that the decline continued in 1987, to 0.83 gallons, Bertolucci said.

Distilled spirits are hard liquors such as whiskey, rum, vodka or gin. Beer and wine, which are fermented but not distilled, are considered separately. However, CDC statistics show that consumption of alcoholic beverages as a whole is on the decline.

Two out of three American adults drink, but a relatively small number of them account for most of the consumption of alcoholic beverages, the CDC said. Ten percent of drinkers, or 6.5% of the U.S. adult population, account for half of all the alcohol consumed in the nation.

Public health officials say average daily consumption of one ounce or more of ethanol--about two beers, cocktails or glasses of wine--is “heavy drinking,” and heavy drinkers run a seven times greater risk of liver cirrhosis than other drinkers.

At least 46% of the cirrhosis deaths among U.S. men, and at least 15% of cirrhosis deaths among women, is attributable to heavy drinking, the CDC said.

The CDC reported Friday that 26,151 Americans died of chronic liver disease and cirrhosis in 1986; 42% of those deaths were associated with alcohol.

In another 13,475 deaths, chronic liver disease was a “contributing cause” among other causes, the CDC said.

The high rates of death from chronic liver disease were scattered across the country, topped by 31 such deaths per 100,000 residents in Washington, D.C. The lowest was Arkansas, with six deaths per 100,000 people.