Almost half of all the deaths of working age men in Russia may be caused by the drinking of alcohol not meant to be a beverage. So says a study released this morning by Britain's national school of public health.

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found that the percentage of deaths caused by the drinking of so-called hazardous alcohol--alcohol-containing substances that were not supposed to be beverages--was significantly higher than previously thought. The study, which was carried out in Izhevsk, Russia by the British researchers and a team from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, found that Russian men are drinking things such as eau de cologne and antiseptics for their high alcohol content. According to the research team, the study is the first to cover the consumption of non-beverage alcohols. Researchers also expanded the way problem drinking was assessed, by asking questions about frequent hangovers or drinking binges.

According to today's press release, previous research had put the rate of death from alcohol consumption at 27% among Russian men ages 15-59. But by factoring in the drinking of non-beverage alcohols, the British-German study now puts the alcohol death rate at 43%.

Why is this study important for those of us who are adopting from Russia? Studies by other researchers have determined that maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy is the key factor in fetal alcohol syndrome disorders, not the birth father's drinking.

But the lives of Russian men are being cut dramatically short by alcohol consumption, and as I have noted before, that affects the families and children they leave behind. The life expectancy of Russian men was 59 in 2004; in the United States at the same time it was 75.4 years for white men and 69.2 years for black men, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In a speech last December, President Vladimir Putin voiced concern for his country's alcoholism problem.

For more information about the study, contact the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.