Alcohol abuse ranks among the most common and also the most severe environmental hazards to human health. Its significance is heightened by the possibility of prevention by elimination of the habit, however, rarely exerted. The incidence of deleterious effects on human health has relentlessly risen in the past years for a variety of factors. They include migration of populations and, particularly, increased urbanization. Thus, in some parts of the world, population groups previously spared have become involved, which is also re flected in the increasing number of breweries and distilleries in...