The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a report showing that consumption of alcohol in the United States has dramatically increased in past few years.

As per the report, alcohol-related deaths in US have increased 37% from 2002. Data has shown that from 2006 and 2010, excessive alcohol use claimed almost 88,000 deaths each year.

Experts in explanation said alcohol related deaths here do not mean deaths due to drink-and-drive, or accidents or homicides committed under its influence.

CDC said that if the deaths from these causes will also be included in the alcohol related deaths then the number of annual deaths directly or indirectly caused by alcohol would rise to 90,000.

Report shows that deaths from heroin and prescription painkillers have rapidly increased since the early 2000s, so public health experts have expended their energy and focus on those issues.

But the new federal data shows that more people died from alcohol-induced causes than from heroin and prescription painkillers combined. As per the data there were 30,722 alcohol deaths, compared to 28,647 heroin plus prescription deaths.