Be warned. This editorial is a bit of a nag session.

The “wine o’clock” habit has begun to take a deadly toll on the baby-boomer generation of women, according to a recent pair of new studies. They reveal that the likelihood of a woman in her early 60s dying from drink has increased by more than a third since the turn of the millennium.

The reports, both from Great Britain, indicated that death rates from alcohol among middle-aged women have risen much faster than those of men of the same age.

The first report, from the British Office for National Statistics, showed 18.9 in every 100,000 women aged between 60 and 64 died in 2016 from causes directly attributable to alcohol, up from 14 in every 100,000 in 2001. That’s a rise of 35 percent.

More men in the 60-64 age group were still dying of drink, but the death rate for men rose by less than 25 percent.

For women aged 55-59, there was a 30 percent increase in alcohol deaths. And while the chances of a man dying from drink in his early 50s fell between 2001 and 2016, for women they went up.

The second report, by Public Health England, found that from 2014 to 2016, deaths among women directly caused by alcohol rose by 2.4 percent, and among men by just 1.9 percent.

We’re all familiar with expressions like “wine o’clock” describing the popularity of wine among women in their thirties and forties. There’s the midmorning television news show whose hosts share a stem of wine with their chitchat. Indulgence in a relaxing glass or two is an unquestioned right and an individual decision.

Pennsylvania is going with this flow. State officials seem focused more on convenience and availability of alchololic beverage sales than they are on the concept of privatization. The overriding objective is increased sales revenue for the state.

Unfortunately, consideration isn’t given to the consequences of rising consumption. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control lists some of the health related consequences:

- High blood pressure, cancers, heart disease, stroke, liver disease and other chronic medical conditions.

- Risky sexual behaviors resulting in unintended pregnancy, HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases.

- Motor vehicle crashes resulting in injuries and deaths.

- Violence and injuries from falls, drowning, homicide, suicide, intimate partner violence and sexual assault.

- Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders resulting in physical, behavioral and learning problems later in life.

Taken in their entirety, these costs are staggering — and many are borne by the public. We should consider these costs as we reshape policy that encourages increased sales and consumption of alcohol. It might not be the cash cow that it seems to be.