Printed in Great Britain The Alcohol Trade and its Effects on Public Health

Intake of alcohol may impair health. With this in mind, Walsh and Grant1 have studied recent trends in the statistics on the commercial production and marketing of alcoholic beverages. They found that the global commercial production per person increased by almost 15 % between 1965 and 1980. Production of beer per person increased by approximately 50 % and that of spirits by one third while no notable increase was observed in wine pro-duction. Rapid growth of beer production took place in many developing African, Asian and Latin American countries. Commercial production and international marketing became increasingly concentrated among a small number of transnational corporations. Walsh and Grant argue that increased commercia