"Casual" smokers may have high-risk drinking habits

By Reuters Health

"Young adults who smoke on a less-than- daily basis appear to be more likely than non-smokers to have a drinking problem, a new study suggests."

"Yale University researchers found that among nearly 6,000 Americans, those who smoked on a fairly 'casual' basis were more likely to binge-drink than non-smokers were. Moreover, they were at greater risk of alcohol abuse than either non-smokers or daily smokers..."

"The current findings suggest that efforts to 'reduce the pairing' of smoking and drinking could be helpful, the researchers report in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research..."

Full article available at http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSTRE48MBC120080923