Data presented here indicate that iron exposure exacerbates the changes in the glutathione status of the liver cell and the lipid peroxidative response of the tissue induced by acute ethanol intoxication. In these conditions, additivity in lipid peroxidation was found to occur either when the process was estimated by hepatic malondialdehyde formation, as well as by measurements of the biliary malondialdehyde release in the anesthetized rat and by the antioxidant-sensitive respiration in the perfused rat liver, procedures which are non-invasive for the tissue.