Drinking causes about 1,500 deaths in NYC

NEW YORK, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Excessive drinking caused nearly 100,000 hospitalizations and 1,500 deaths in New York City each year, city health officials say.

The report, "Health Consequences of Alcohol Use in New York City," says alcohol caused 10 percent of all hospitalizations and prompts 78,000 visits to hospital emergency departments annually -- a rate that more than doubled between 2003 and 2009.

Nearly half of adult New Yorkers do not drink at all, but behavioral surveys indicate 42 percent of the city's adult drinkers say they have engaged in binge drinking -- five or more drinks on one occasion -- during the previous month, the report says. Eleven percent define themselves as heavy drinkers -- for men an average of more than two drinks a day and for women who average more than one.

Of the estimated 1,537 New York City alcohol-attributable deaths in 2008, chronic liver disease was the leading direct cause, accounting for 22 percent of the alcohol-related deaths, while alcohol contributed to approximately 46 percent of homicides, 30 percent of deaths from accidents and poisoning and 28 percent of motor vehicle-related deaths, the report says.

"Excessive drinking can lead to injuries, violence, and fatal accidents in the short term, and heart disease, liver disease, cancer and other chronic conditions in the long-term," Dr. Thomas Farley, city health commissioner, says in a statement.