America Has a $249 Billion Drinking Problem

They found “excessive alcohol use” cost the US $249 billion in 2010, and of the $249 billion, 71.9% came from “lost productivity”.

Brewer called for effective prevention strategies to cut the rates of drinking and their related effects in both local communities and states, including raising alcohol excise taxes.

The District of Columbia had the highest cost per person, which was $1,526 compared to the national average of $807, the agency said.

A huge chunk of the economic toll of excessive alcohol intake is impaired productivity in the workplace or absenteeism, which took $77 billion of the total cost (71.9 percent) in the study.

The cost of underage drinking in national economy is $24.3 billion.

Experts during the study calculated the factors starting from e-cost of healthcare, vehicle crashes, crime, and alcohol-related deaths from 2006 to 2010, the target years of the study.

“The increase in the costs of excessive drinking from 2006 to 2010 is concerning”, said Robert Brewer, head of the CDC’s Alcohol Program, “particularly given the severe economic recession that occurred during those years”.

Binge drinking can be defined as drinking five or more drinks in one occasion for men and 4 or more drinks on one occasion for women, according to the report.

It was responsible for 77 percent of the total costs of excessive drinking, according to CBS News. More than $100 billion in costs were paid by governments, according to the CDC. For example, estimations of pain and suffering due to alcohol-related harm were not included in the study.

Researchers suggest that alcohol taxes should be raised in order to diminish the consumption and thus the annual federal costs. The last time the CDC made a similar calculation, excess drinking was blamed for $224 billion in costs, estimated for 2006.

There’s also a public cost: almost a quarter trillion dollars in 2010 nationwide.