[00:00.10]From VOA Learning English,
[00:02.38]this is the Health Report.
[00:05.02]A new study has found that excessive alcohol drinking
[00:09.99]costs Americans more than $220 billion a year,
[00:16.67]that amount is equal to almost $2 a drink.
[00:22.00]But study organizers believe the biggest costs
[00:26.49]come from a loss of worker productivity.
[00:30.03]Robert Brewer works for America's Centers
[00:34.72]for Disease Control and Prevention,
[00:37.56]a public health agency.
[00:39.80]He helped to produce a report on the study.
[00:43.84]The researchers used findings from 2006
[00:48.50]to examine different costs linked to heavy drinking.
[00:53.08]They looked at results from around the United States
[00:56.97]and found a lot of variation in different parts of the country.
[01:02.25]Alcohol-related costs include health care,
[01:07.68]the cost of trying cases for drinking-related crimes,
[01:12.70]and property damage from road accidents.
[01:17.34]Robert Brewer says the biggest cost is lost productivity.
[01:23.27]Many people with a drinking problem have lower-paying jobs.
[01:28.26]He says they may also be less productive when they are at work.
[01:34.68]"In addition to that,
[01:36.07]a number of people die of alcohol-attributable conditions.
[01:39.77]And many of those folks die in the prime of their life.
[01:42.55]So there's the personal tragedy there.
[01:44.94]But there's also a huge economic cost to somebody dying,
[01:48.44]for example, in an alcohol-related motor vehicle crash at age 35."
[01:52.67]The researchers were mainly concerned about the cost of heavy alcohol use.
[01:58.75]The study didn't look at the effect on individuals
[02:02.43]who drink a glass of beer or wine with dinner.
[02:07.06]Mr Brewer says the largest costs come from binge drinking
[02:12.80]when people drink a lot of alcohol in a short period of time.
[02:17.54]The study was based on the economic costs of heavy drinking
[02:23.01]in the United States,
[02:24.61]but Mr Brewer says many nations have problems
[02:28.90]with what the World Health Organization calls "harmful use of alcohol."
[02:34.83]"But I think that it is very reasonable to assume
[02:37.91]that harmful alcohol use is going to result
[02:41.15]in some of the same consequences in other countries,
[02:43.54]even if the costs associated with those consequences are different."
[02:47.53]The study on the economic costs of excessive alcohol use
[02:52.40]was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
[02:57.14]Two years ago, a British medical examiner ruled that singer
[03:02.53]Amy Winehouse died as a result of drinking to much alcohol.
[03:09.05]Winehouse was only 27 years old.
[03:13.08]Tests show that she died after drinking enough alcohol
[03:18.21]to put her blood alcohol level at more than
[03:22.44]five times the legal drink-drive limit.
[03:27.03]The award winning singer had a well documented battle
[03:31.31]with drinks and alcohol.
[03:33.86]And that's the Health Report from VOA Learning English.