HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finnish authorities expressed alarm on Thursday at figures showing alcohol to be the leading killer of men in Finland and the second most common cause of death in women.Ismo Tuominen, ministerial adviser in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, said alcohol-related deaths had been increasing since the 1960s but showed a particularly sharp rise in the last two years.
He said there was no question why: in 2004 Finland cut its taxes on alcohol and Estonia joined the EU, allowing Finns to pop across the Baltic Sea to buy liquor at much lower prices. Source.
1 comment:
I've never been to Finland, but have been to the northernmost part of Norway. Although most of the people in Norway are the happy, healthy folks you see in the travelogues, it seems the further north you get, the more terrible abuse of alcohol you see. Maybe it was just me, or maybe it was because the population really starts to thin out that far north. If the booze doesn't kill you outright, passing out on your way home from the bar or a neighbor's would kill you just as dead.
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