The estimated costs for 2006, the most recent year available, climbed $40 billion over the costs found in a similar 1998 study. And CDC Alcohol Program official Robert Brewer, MD, suggests that the findings may understate the problem.

"Now, I should tell you that our estimates here are very conservative, yet the number that we are reporting here - $223.5 billion - is huge," Brewer said.

The study on the costs of excessive drinking in the United States is published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

In separate research on the health effects of alcohol, heavy drinkers were found to be at higher risk of lung cancer.

The study, by researchers at Kaiser Permanente in California, used data from a group of more than 125,000 people, who were followed for as long as 30 years to assess various lung cancer risk factors. Those who had more than three alcoholic drinks a day were more likely to get lung cancer, but the increased risk did not apply to more moderate drinkers.

The researchers, led by Stanton T. Siu, MD, presented their findings at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Hawaii.