PAST INTEMPERANCE, BUT
APPARENTLY CURED
150 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

DEATH RATE AMONG POLICYHOLDERS USING MORE THAN 2 GLASSES OF BEER OR
1 GLASS OF WHISKEY DAILY, BUT, REGARDED AS TEMPERATE & STANDARD RISKS
186 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

* * * * *

Now that accurate laboratory evidence is available regarding the
physiological effect of alcohol in so-called moderate doses the
insurance experience seems consistent, and the higher mortality among
so-called moderate drinkers is only what we would naturally expect to
find in the light of the most recent knowledge regarding its effects
upon the human organism, not only in the direct causation of disease,
but in lowering the defense to disease and increasing the liability to
accident, and the tendency to careless living.

[Sidenote: Medico-Actuarial Mortality Investigation]

In the recent medico-actuarial investigation[8], including forty-three
American life insurance companies, the combined experience on users of
alcohol has been compiled, with very interesting results. It may be
subdivided as follows:

First: Those who were accepted as standard risks but who gave a history
of occasional alcoholic excess in the past. The mortality in this group
was 50 per cent. in excess of the mortality of insured lives in general,
equivalent to a reduction of over four years in the average lifetime of
the group.

Second: Individuals who took two glasses of beer, or a glass of whisky,
or their alcoholic equivalent, each day. In this group the mortality
was 18 per cent. in excess of the average.

Third: Men who indulge more freely than the preceding group, but who
were considered acceptable as standard insurance risks. In this group
the mortality was _86 per cent._ in excess of the average. In short, we
find the following increase of mortality over the average death rate
among insured risks generally:

Steady moderate drinkers but accepted
as standard risks 86 per cent.
Having past excesses 50 " "
Very moderate drinkers 18 " "

This means that steady drinkers who exceed two glasses of beer or one
glass of whisky daily are not, on the evidence, entitled to standard
insurance, but should be charged a heavy extra premium.

In these groups, the death rates from Bright's disease, pneumonia and
suicide were higher than the norma