Wave of alcohol poisoning kills dozens across Russia*

Reuters
Saturday, October 28, 2006; 8:00 AM

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Dozens of Russians have died and more than 1,000
received hospital treatment in a wave of alcohol poisoning that is
sweeping the country, Russian authorities said on Saturday.

Alcoholism, coupled with poisoning by low-quality and bootleg liquor,
remains one of post-Soviet Russia's most serious problems and
contributes to a life expectancy for men of only 59 years.

One northwest region near the Baltic Sea, Pskov, imposed a state of
emergency this month to tackle alcohol-related problems, mostly
involving hepatitis and other liver diseases.

Russian media, quoting the Emergencies Ministry, said the largest
outbreak had been recorded in Siberia's Irkutsk region, where some 650
people had fallen ill and 27 had died.

More than 200 cases and seven deaths have been recorded in the Perm
region in the Ural mountains and 100 cases and three deaths in Volgograd
in southern Russia.

"News from the regions looks more like figures from a military
campaign," Ekho Moskvy, the capital's liberal radio station, said in a
report compiling data from across Russia.

Russian television has shown pictures of patients, many of them with
yellow-tinged skin, undergoing treatment in hospitals. TV stations have
quoted doctors as saying sufferers often sought help too late.

"All these people are from disadvantaged sections of society," Irkutsk
police spokesman Alexander Popov told the daily Izvestia.

Police have intensified spot checks on shops and liquor plants to try to
stamp out the use of deadly additives, like methylated spirits, which
boost the alcohol content of a drink.

Russia is the world's biggest consumer of vodka and drinking is part of
many social occasions.

Liquor of all descriptions is available at kiosks on virtually every
street corner in major towns, with an average bottle of vodka selling
for the equivalent of $3 to $4.

Living standards have improved in recent years, boosted by oil revenues,
and average monthly salaries are the equivalent of $400. But residents
of villages and small towns, where unemployment is high, earn
considerably less.