Excessive boozing accounts for 10 percent of deaths in working-age Americans

Heavy drinking caused one in every 10 deaths among working-age adults from 2006 to 2010 in the United States, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Excessive drinking — which the CDC says includes binge drinking, copious weekly drinking, and drinking while underage or pregnant — led to a staggering 88,000 deaths among 20- to 64-year-olds over that five-year stretch. Moreover, those premature deaths cost the U.S. about $224 billion in 2006 alone, while shortening the lifespans of those effected by an average of about 30 years.

"We're talking about a large economic impact, people who are contributing to society," Mandy Stahre, one of the study's authors, said. "They're in the prime of their lives."

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Correction: This article originally misstated the percent of working-age Americans killed by alcohol. It has since been corrected. We regret the error.