Riddick L, Luke J L
J Forensic Sci. 1978 Jul;23(3):493-502.
Ethyl alcohol and its lethal effects were present either in the victim or in the environment, including persons responsible for a given death, in 53% of the cases autopsied during a six-month period at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in the District of Columbia. The results of this small, admittedly biased, sample indicate that the acute and chronic effects of alcohol are a major public health problem in this jurisdiction. Comparative figures from other medical examiner's systems suggest the national prevalence of the problem and confirm the gross inadequacy of data from death certificates for such research. Only when the combination of accurate pathological, toxicological, and historical information concerning all types of deaths is available can reliable statistics regarding the numbers and types of deaths related to alcohol be obtained.
在哥伦比亚特区首席法医办公室为期六个月的尸检中，53%的案例里，受害者本人或其所处环境（包括导致特定死亡事件的相关人员）中存在乙醇及其致死影响。这个规模小且公认有偏差的样本结果表明，酒精的急性和慢性影响是该辖区的一个主要公共卫生问题。其他法医系统的对比数据显示了该问题在全国的普遍性，并证实了死亡证明上的数据对于此类研究而言严重不足。只有当能够获取有关各类死亡的准确病理、毒理学和历史信息时，才能得到与酒精相关的死亡数量和类型的可靠统计数据。
