A new study found that 43 percent of all premature deaths among Russian men in one town in the Ural Mountains were caused by excessive alcohol use, including consumption of cologne, medical tinctures and cleaning agents as well as liquor, the Independent reported June 15.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Health studied premature deaths among men in the town of Izhevsk and found that manufactured alcohol played a much higher role in fatalities than previously estimated. "We only came across it when we were sitting round a table with our colleagues in Izhevsk and asking what could men be drinking," said researcher David Leon. "They mentioned tinctures and eau de colognes. We had no idea this was going on."

Such products contain up to 97 percent alcohol. They are popular because of their high alcohol content and because they are far cheaper than even the lowest-priced vodka.

"Not only is it cheaper unit for unit of alcohol, but because it comes in smaller bottles it is cheaper to buy," said Leon. "If you are drunk and begging your wife for money she is more likely to give you 10 roubles, which is almost enough for a bottle of tincture, than she is to give you the price of a bottle of vodka."

Leon told of visiting shops in town where colognes, antifreeze and cleaning fluids -- each containing ethanol -- were all grouped together on display shelves. "The way they were displayed was testimony to the fact that they were being sold for their ethanol," he said.

Men who drank such products raised their risk of premature death sevenfold, the researchers found. "Our view is that if these products were made far more expensive or far less available it would not end drinking but it would make it less dysfunctional and less likely to kill the drinkers," Leon said. "What we are seeing in Russia as a result of the availability of these products is an acceleration of the end stage of drinking."

Overall, Russian men on average consume more than 15 liters of pure alcohol annually, twice the rate of British men.

The research was published in the June 16, 2007 issue of The Lancet.