Drinking Habits Take Toll in Baltics

People drink beer in downtown Tallinn, Estonia in this June 16, 2005 file picture. The Baltic nations of Lithania, Latvia and Estonia still find themselves near the bottom of several European Union health categories linked to excessive drinking, which includes the rates of liver disease, traffic deaths, suicides, alcohol poisoning and psychosis, according to the World Health Organization. (AP Photo/NIPA ) (Nipa - AP)

RIGA, Latvia -- Augustinas Grevys' glory was short-lived when he bested three friends by being the last to pass out when each downed nearly a quart of moonshine.

Grevys didn't get the chance to spend his 20 litas ($7) winnings _ enough to buy two more bottles of booze _ because the 34-year-old Lithuanian died within hours. His three friends were found comatose but eventually recovered.

That incident five years ago triggered calls for action to stem binge drinking in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, yet they remain near the bottom of European Union health categories linked to excessive drinking _ incidence of liver disease, traffic deaths, suicides, alcohol poisoning and psychosis.

None of the three former Soviet republics has a comprehensive, well-financed program to fight alcohol abuse, and deeply entrenched cultural traditions of heavy drinking show no sign of fading.

"We are a tiny nation of 1.4 million people and one of the world's fastest shrinking populations," said Lauri Bekmann, an Estonian temperance activist. "A country like ours will die out if it keeps drinking like this."

Lithuania has a suicide and self-inflicted injury rate of 39 per 100,000 people _ by far the highest in Europe, including non-EU countries such as Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, and experts link that to high alcohol consumption. Estonia ranks third and Latvia fourth in the EU.

Alcohol is partly blamed for making Baltic roads among the most perilous in the 25-nation EU. Latvia has the bloc's highest traffic fatality rate _ 220 deaths per 1 million residents in 2004 _ just ahead of Lithuania at 216.

The World Health Organization says the average Estonian consumes 3.54 gallons of pure alcohol a year, the third highest in the EU. Latvia and Lithuania have lower figures, but the statistics don't include consumption of illegal liquor.

WHO estimates the Baltic states and Slovakia have the EU's highest unrecorded alcohol consumption _ as much as 1.85 gallons annually per person in Latvia. Dr. Astrida Stirna, head of Latvia's State Addiction Agency, estimates 25 percent to 30 percent of alcohol drunk in Latvia is illegal booze.

In the Estonian port of Parnu five years ago, 68 people died and 80 were injured by a single batch of methanol-laced alcohol, which can cause blindness or death in small amounts. Seven people from an eastern Latvian town died from a bad batch last year.

But Baltic residents earn some of the EU's lowest wages and are willing to risk periodic lethal batches of cheap illegal alcohol. Moonshine is readily available in virtually every village, town and city.

Health experts attribute the bingeing problem to poverty, a lack of political will to fight alcohol abuse, Baltic drinking traditions and the ease and low cost of obtaining alcohol, including bootleg booze.