Russian men losing years to vodka

[Os Cangaceiros]

Spirit linked to 35% of cases where a man dies before age 55, with study citing national sport of spectacular drunkenness

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/31/russian-men-losing-years-to-vodka

[Os Cangaceiros]

There are a number of interesting points one could probably make about this, but this kind of stood out to me:


"It's not considered out of order to drink until you can't function in Russia," Leon said. "It just seems to be part of being a guy in Russia that you are expected to drink heavily."

There is a really messed up culture of drinking for the purpose of just completely blacking-out and passing out on your face where I live too. I live in a far northern latitude and people have a really disturbing view on alcohol here, it seems. I've been struggling to break out of that culture myself. I've heard that binge drinking is a problem in other northern climates as well (Scandinavia, northern Canada etc). and I've been wondering if latitude has anything to do with it.

[Invader Zim]

I don't know, but an interesting idea. If so I suspect it will have more to do with shared culture through historical diaspora than the latitude persay. I must confess to being a part of the drinking until losing functionality.

[PhoenixAsh]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_binge_drinking#Europe

http://www.camh.ca/en/hospital/about_camh/newsroom/news_releases_media_advisories_and_backgrounders/current_year/Pages/Unhealthy-drinking-widespread-around-the-world,-CAMH-study-shows.aspx

http://www.targetmap.com/ThumbnailsReports/5716_THUMB_IPAD.jpg

[Os Cangaceiros]

The culture of drinking in the UK is markedly different from that of some other European nations. In mainland Europe, alcohol tends to be consumed more slowly over the course of an evening, often accompanied by a restaurant meal. In Scandinavia, occasional bouts of heavy drinking are the norm. In the UK (as well as Ireland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland)), by contrast, alcohol is commonly consumed in rapid binges, leading to more regular instances of severe intoxication. In this way the British combine Northern European volumes of consumption with frequency resembling that of Southern Europe. This "drinking urgency" may have been inspired by traditional pre-midnight pub (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_house) closing hours (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_call_(bar_term)) in the UK, whereas bars in continental Europe would typically remain open for the entire night. This may have stemmed from the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_of_the_Realm_Act_1914), emergency legislation dating back to the first world war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I) regulating pub opening times with the intention of getting workers out of the pub and into the munitions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munitions) factories. Consequently, it was criticised for being draconian and denying the working classes their pleasures. This is one of the reasons for introducing the Licensing Act 2003 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licensing_Act_2003) which came into effect in England and Wales (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England_and_Wales) in 2005, and which allows 24 hour licensing (although not all bars have taken advantage of the change). Some observers, however, believed it would exacerbate the problem

^that's really interesting IMO. Around here it seems more like Scandanivia, although of course the majority of people who consume alcohol do it responsibly.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

We have the same problem here, except the 'drink until you lose function' mentality seems to me to be mainly in people my age, so I think it's a bit of a ticking health timebomb for Britain.

I used to be part of it and it's pretty horrific.

I say I used to be part of it whilst sipping a beer at 4pm. :)