The danger of toxic medical alcohol sold everywhere

Medical alcohol is made of extremely toxic substances.

According to regulations, alcohol sold in pharmacies must be medical alcohol, which means it must be registered or declared for quality and must be 70%, 90% ethanol... Medical alcohol is only allowed to contain no more than 0.02% methanol, the ingredients must not exceed 0.03%, in addition to many other strict quality requirements.

However, currently, non-compliant medical alcohols are widely sold on the market, in pharmacies,... Many of them contain very high methanol content, some products are completely methanol, not ethanol. Many medical alcohol products in pharmacies today are not 70% or 90% ethanol (70-degree or 90-degree alcohol)... but the main ingredient is methanol.

According to chemical experts, methanol is considered an extremely toxic “impurity”. If inhaled, exposed to the skin or accidentally ingested, the poisoned person will have symptoms such as headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, decreased vision, and more seriously, blindness, convulsions, dilated pupils, circulatory collapse, respiratory failure, and even death.

But compared to ethanol, methanol is much cheaper, only 1/3. Therefore, many medical alcohol manufacturers, for profit, have used industrial methanol to mix in and still labeled it as ethanol antiseptic alcohol, making it impossible for users to know.

In fact, recently, authorities have discovered many types of medical alcohol that do not comply with regulations, such as not being registered or having their quality declared, and being distributed at very cheap prices by private businesses that have not been inspected by the state.

Be careful when using medical alcohol

Medical alcohol is mainly used to disinfect wounds, sterilize medical instruments or as a solvent for cleaning. However, toxic medical alcohol is made from industrial alcohol, not only does it not have the ability to disinfect wounds but also increases the patient's risk of infection...

In particular, many people today have the habit of mixing ethanol into wine to drink because of its low cost. The act of labeling the bottle as food grade alcohol but actually containing toxic industrial alcohol is a dangerous act of fraud. If you buy bottles of alcohol containing methanol to drink, unfortunate consequences can happen at any time.

In just the first month of 2018, there were 12 cases of poisoning due to using alcohol containing industrial methanol that had to be taken to the emergency room at the Poison Control Department, Bach Mai Hospital, of which 4 cases died.

Studies show that normal methanol at 20 mg/dl threatens nerve damage, above 40 mg/dl is severe poisoning for users. According to standards, the methanol concentration in 100-degree alcohol is allowed to be 300 mg/liter. If 1 liter of industrial alcohol is mixed into 3 liters of alcohol with a concentration of 33%, the methanol content in the alcohol is 100 mg/liter of alcohol. Therefore, using industrial alcohol to mix alcohol is very dangerous, causing poisoning, even death for users.

Experts recommend that you should only buy and use medical alcohol products from medical companies; with registration numbers or announcements on the label. Specifically, when buying antiseptic alcohol, buyers should carefully read the contents on the product label such as: Manufacturing unit, product registration number, product announcement number, expiry date, etc.

People should also not mix alcohol into drinking wine, even if it is food alcohol. With the naked eye, people cannot clearly distinguish between food alcohol ethanol and industrial alcohol methanol. If you mistakenly buy methanol disguised as ethanol and then mix it into drinking wine, it will be harmful to your health.