OST RESEARCH on the effects of alcohol has been con

cerned with ethanol. Nevertheless, people do not drink pure ethanol, but a variety of alcoholic beverages. Other substances present in these beverages include low molecular weight alcohols, aldehydes and esters (1, 2), lead, iron, cobalt, histamines, additives, coloring agents, tannins, phenols and a large number of other organic and inorganic compounds in trace amounts. The contribution of these chemicals to the different effects of alcoholic beverages cannot be discounted. Similar amounts of alcohol consumed as beer, wine or distilled spirits may affect health in different ways, but it is difficult to determine the relevance of the different beverages with respect to all forms of alcohol-related damage. With a few exceptions, ingestion of these substances at low doses produces effects that differ only in regard to potency and time-action curves, not in qualitative neuropharmacological effects (3). When swallowed, all produce gastrointestinal irritation, followed by intoxication typical of ethanol and the volatile anesthetics. The alcohols in general induce a behavioral spectrum virtually identical to that of ethanol. Large doses produce headache, nausea and vomiting, as well as respiration depression. The higher aliphatic alcohols are absorbed more slowly than ethanol, and, consequently, their peak effect occurs later than that observed after ethanol. Moreover, repeated ingestion of these components could cause their accumulation in blood or brain, thus potentiating their effects (3). Retrospective studies (e.g., 4) have suggested that total alcohol consumption, rather than the specific type of bever