ABSTRACT
Introduction The consumption of alcoholic beverages can be divided into recorded consumption (estimated from sales, production, and national taxation records) and unrecorded consumption (e.g. illegal production, smuggling, home production, and private importation). Overall, recorded consumption has increased slightly over the past 20 years, but more substantial increases have occurred in China and some developing countries. In contrast, an overall decline in recorded consumption is observed in several developed countries. In 2002, more than 1.9 billion adults (1.2 billion men and 750 million women) were estimated to consume alcoholic beverages, with an average daily consumption of 10-13 grams (g) of ethanol (= ± 1 drink), and 22% of the men and 3% of the women drank 40 g of alcohol (= ± 3 drinks) or more per day.
