Edinburgh Napier University

  Heavy drinkers in Scotland may consume 1600 g ethanol per week. Due to its low price, cider may be
preferred over other beverages. Anecdotal evidence has linked cider to specific health hazards beyond
other alcoholic beverages. To examine this hypothesis, nine apple and pear cider samples were chemically
analysed for constituents and contaminants. None of the products exceeded regulatory or toxicological
thresholds, but the regular occurrence of acetaldehyde in cider was detected. To provide a
quantitative risk assessment, two collectives of exclusive drinkers of cider and vodka were compared and
the intake of acetaldehyde was estimated using probabilistic MonteeCarlo type analysis. The cider
consumers were found to ingest more than 200-times the amount of acetaldehyde consumed by vodka
consumers. The margins of exposure (MOE) of acetaldehyde were 224 for the cider and over 220,000 for
vodka consumers. However, if the effects of ethanol were considered in a cumulative assessment of the
combined MOE, the effect of acetaldehyde was minor and the combined MOE for both groups was 0.3.
We suggest that alcohol policy priority should be given on reducing ethanol intake by measures such as
minimum pricing, rather than to focus on acetaldehyde.