The number of new cases of infectious diseases, such as acute poliomyelitis, pertussis, diphtheria, and measles, increased from a low in the mid-1960s to a new high in 1981-1982 (Feshbach, 1985b). Alcohol consumption accounted for 20 percent of all premature mortality in 1980 and for 30 percent of household budgetary expenditures in one-fourth of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian households (Schultz and Rafferty, 1990).