Wave of alcohol poisoning kills dozens across Russia

MOSCOW, Oct 28 (Reuters) Dozens of Russians have died and more than 1,000 received hospital treatment in a wave of alcohol poisoning that is sweeping the country, Russian authorities said today.

Alcoholism, coupled with poisoning by low-quality and bootleg liquor, remains one of post-Soviet Russia's most serious problems and contributes to a life expectancy for men of only 59 years.

One northwest region near the Baltic Sea, Pskov, imposed a state of emergency this month to tackle alcohol-related problems, mostly involving hepatitis and other liver diseases.

Russian media, quoting the Emergencies Ministry, said the largest outbreak had been recorded in Siberia's Irkutsk region, where some 650 people had fallen ill and 27 had died.

More than 200 cases and seven deaths have been recorded in the Perm region in the Ural mountains and 100 cases and three deaths in Volgograd in southern Russia.

''News from the regions looks more like figures from a military campaign,'' Ekho Moskvy, the capital's liberal radio station, said in a report compiling data from across Russia.

Russian television has shown pictures of patients, many of them with yellow-tinged skin, undergoing treatment in hospitals. TV stations have quoted doctors as saying sufferers often sought help too late.

''All these people are from disadvantaged sections of society,'' Irkutsk police spokesman Alexander Popov told the daily Izvestia.

Police have intensified spot checks on shops and liquor plants to try to stamp out the use of deadly additives, like methylated spirits, which boost the alcohol content of a drink.

Russia is the world's biggest consumer of vodka and drinking is part of many social occasions.

Liquor of all descriptions is available at kiosks on virtually every street corner in major towns, with an average bottle of vodka selling for the equivalent of 3 dollar to 4 dollar.

Living standards have improved in recent years, boosted by oil revenues, and average monthly salaries are the equivalent of 400 dollar. But residents of villages and small towns, where unemployment is high, earn considerably less.

REUTERS DKB BD1739