Although alcohol use has been established as a risk factor for injuries associated with motor vehicle crashes, the role of alcohol for other unintentional & intentional injuries is less defined. A review of 102,401 deaths investigated by North Carolina medical examiners in the period 1973-1983 characterized the temporal patterns of ethyl alcohol in unintentional injury fatalities, suicides, homicides, & persons who died of natural or unknown causes. Alcohol was present in 62.8% of homicide victims, 48.6% of unintentional injury fatalities, 35.3% of suicides, & 14.4% of deaths from natural causes. (31 refs)