The association between alcohol consumption and bladder cancer is controversial. We used data from 10,125 participants in the Framingham Heart Study to assess the association between total and beverage-specific alcohol consumption and the risk of bladder cancer. For each case of bladder cancer, up to five control subjects were selected and matched on major confounders using a risk set method. We used conditional logistic regression to assess the risk of bladder cancer according to categories of alcohol consumption. During a mean follow-up of 27.3 +/- 10.1 years, there were 126 incident cases of bladder cancer. There was no statistically significant association between alcohol consumption and risk of bladder cancer (P(trend) =.3). In beverage-specific analyses, beer consumption was associated with a reduced risk of bladder cancer (P(trend) =.03), whereas wine (P(trend) =.7) and spirit (P(trend) =.2) consumption were not. Our data suggest that total and beverage-specific alcohol consumption are not associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer.