What is surrogate alcohol, or burnt vodka and its consequences? Memo: how to distinguish fake alcohol from the real one.
Fake alcohol may contain methanol - methyl, or wood alcohol. It is also called technical, it is a terrible poison, and it is from it that people die or become disabled.
As with regular ethyl alcohol, once in the bloodstream, methyl alcohol passes through the liver, where, like its safer counterpart, it is oxidized by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). If not for this chemical reaction, technical alcohol would not carry any danger: by itself, it does not have high toxicity. Therefore, the first thing that a person who has drunk such alcohol feels is the usual symptoms of intoxication.
However, under the influence of ADH, methanol is converted into formaldehyde and formic acid. These products are extremely unhealthy: they damage the central nervous system, in particular the retina and optic nerve, leading to blindness and severe poisoning with failure of the kidneys and other internal organs.
Where can you buy alcohol?
Only organizations can sell alcohol, not individuals. Low-alcohol drinks - beer, cider, mead can be sold by both companies and individual entrepreneurs. You can buy alcohol only in outlets that have a license for the retail sale of alcoholic products. A copy of the license must be displayed prominently in the Consumer Corner. When selling a drink along with a bottle, you must be given a receipt. Any sale of alcohol by hand or through an online store is illegal.
How to distinguish fake alcohol by a bottle or a label?
As a rule, legal producers pour alcoholic products into consumer containers that have special distinctive features (original corrugations, embossing, etc.). The label and back label must be pasted evenly without distortions.
How to distinguish counterfeit alcohol by a federal special stamp or excise stamp?
All alcoholic products produced in the territory of the customs union are pasted over with federal special stamps, and imported alcoholic products are pasted over with excise duty stamps. Such marking confirms the payment of excise duty on each bottle produced by alcoholic beverages.
To visually recognize the authenticity of such brands, you can use the following recommendations:
1. They are printed on self-adhesive paper, which has a special UV emission;
2. Copper holographic foil with a pattern and repeating images of the Coat of Arms of the Russian Federation and the abbreviation "RF" is pressed onto paper for printing excise stamps for alcohol in 2014;
3. A security thread with an irregular window has been inserted into the paper. The window shows the image applied to the thread in the form of pink stripes. Under the influence of ultraviolet light, the image is visualized as the abbreviation "RF" in pink, blue and yellow-orange colors in an oval ring;
4. The abbreviation "RF" is printed on the reverse side of the stamps;
5. An element printed with color-shifting ink changes color from purple to brown depending on the viewing angle;
6. The stamp number is printed by inkjet printing and consists of three digits indicating the grade and nine digits of the stamp number itself;
7. The information on the brand and label of the bottle must match. Here are the name of the alcoholic product, the type of alcoholic product, the capacity of the container, the fortress, the name of the manufacturer and its location.
How to identify fake champagne?
You can distinguish what is in front of you - soda with alcohol or real sparkling wine (champagne) by the bubbles. Throw something into the champagne glass, like a cherry. If it instantly becomes covered with small and frequent bubbles - you have real champagne in front of you. If the bubbles are large and rare, they will quickly float to the surface - in front of you is a fake. By the way, any object thrown into a bottle of soda is covered with just such bubbles.
How to identify fake vodka?
It's about checking the appearance of the drink before buying it. There are signs, the presence of which should motivate you to choose another vodka or even a store.
1. Price. As of December 2015, in accordance with the order of Rosalkogolregulirovanie, a bottle of vodka with a capacity of 0.5 liters with an ethyl alcohol content of 40 percent must be sold at retail for at least 195 rubles per bottle. Accordingly, if the capacity of a bottle of vodka is one liter, then the price is twice as expensive. If you prefer a certain brand of vodka, then you should know the average price of a bottle. If in one of the stores the price is 15-30 percent lower, then the risk of buying fake vodka there increases several times. Miracles do not happen, the cost of the same vodka in different stores cannot differ much.
At the same time, it should be noted that earlier it was the low price that gave out fake vodka, but now the counterfeiters have wised up and in most cases sell their surrogate at the price of the original. Therefore, related factors must be taken into account;
2. Color. Real vodka is absolutely transparent without turbidity and sediment at the bottom. To check this, just turn the bottle upside down, hold it for a few seconds and look through it at the sunlight. Vodka should not have third-party particles, orange, light yellow and other shades. If the color changes, then you have poor purification vodka, the alcohol or water of which contains third-party impurities.
How to distinguish ordinary alcohol from technical?
In some cases, it is possible to determine low-quality alcohol only after the bottle is opened. How to distinguish an alcoholic surrogate?
Methyl alcohol in appearance and smell does not differ from ordinary ethyl alcohol.
Therefore, the main protection against poisoning is the purchase of drinks in proven places.
If for some reason you suspect that alcohol is fake, try checking it at home:
- if you set fire to a strong drink based on ethyl alcohol, then it should burn with a blue flame, while burning methanol has a green color;
if the drink is transparent, throw a small piece of raw potato into the bottle: in technical alcohol it will turn pink, and in vodka it will remain white;
- if you heat a copper wire on a fire and lower it into a liquid, then methanol will give itself out with an unpleasant pungent smell of formaldehyde, ethanol does not smell at all during the test.
Of course, the wisest thing to do would be to refuse tasting in any doubtful case, even if chemical experiments did not reveal anything suspicious.
How to understand that he was poisoned by a surrogate?
The insidiousness of methanol intoxication lies in the fact that its first symptoms are too similar to the consequences of ordinary drunkenness: a person may complain of dizziness, nausea, severe weakness.
However, other warning signs develop within a few hours. It can be:
- severe pain throughout the body;
- deterioration of vision, in which the picture before the eyes can swim and obscure dancing spots appear;
- slow heartbeat and breathing;
- a coma in which a drunk person does not respond to external stimuli and does not wake up.
Such symptoms are a sign of great trouble. If you suspect methanol poisoning, you should urgently call an ambulance and start providing first aid yourself!
On the eve of the upcoming New Year, the volume of sales of alcoholic products increases sharply. Unscrupulous dealers take advantage of this and actively throw counterfeit alcoholic products on the market.
The Department of Licensing and Trade of Primorsky Krai gives some advice on how to protect yourself from purchasing illegal and low-quality alcoholic products.
Why is counterfeit alcohol dangerous?
Fake alcohol may contain methanol - methyl, or wood alcohol. It is also called technical, it is a terrible poison, and it is from it that people die or become disabled.
As with regular ethyl alcohol, once in the bloodstream, methyl alcohol passes through the liver, where, like its safer counterpart, it is oxidized by an enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). If not for this chemical reaction, technical alcohol would not carry any danger: by itself, it does not have high toxicity. Therefore, the first thing that a person who has drunk such alcohol feels is the usual symptoms of intoxication.
However, under the influence of ADH, methanol is converted into formaldehyde and formic acid. These products are extremely harmful to health: they damage the central nervous system, in particular the retina and optic nerve, leading to blindness and severe poisoning with failure of the kidneys and other internal organs.
Where can you buy alcohol?
Only organizations can sell alcohol, not individuals. Low-alcohol drinks - beer, cider, mead can be sold by both companies and individual entrepreneurs. You can buy alcohol only in outlets that have a license for the retail sale of alcoholic products. A copy of the license must be displayed prominently in the Consumer Corner. When selling a drink along with a bottle, you must be given a receipt. Any sale of alcohol by hand or through an online store is illegal.
How to distinguish fake alcohol by a bottle or a label?
As a rule, legal producers pour alcoholic products into consumer containers that have special distinctive features (original corrugations, embossing, etc.). The label and back label must be pasted evenly without distortions.
How to distinguish counterfeit alcohol by a federal special stamp or excise stamp?
All alcoholic products produced in the territory of the customs union are pasted over with federal special stamps, and imported alcoholic products are pasted over with excise duty stamps. Such marking confirms the payment of excise duty on each bottle produced by alcoholic beverages.
To visually recognize the authenticity of such brands, you can use the following recommendations:
1. They are printed on self-adhesive paper, which has a special UV emission;
2. Copper holographic foil with a pattern and repeating images of the Coat of Arms of the Russian Federation and the abbreviation "RF" is pressed onto paper for printing excise stamps for alcohol in 2014;
3. A security thread with an irregular window has been inserted into the paper. The window shows the image applied to the thread in the form of pink stripes. Under the influence of ultraviolet light, the image is visualized as the abbreviation "RF" in pink, blue and yellow-orange colors in an oval ring;
4. The abbreviation "RF" is printed on the reverse side of the stamps;
5. An element printed with color-shifting ink changes color from purple to brown depending on the viewing angle;
6. The stamp number is printed by inkjet printing and consists of three digits indicating the grade and nine digits of the stamp number itself;
7. The information on the brand and label of the bottle must match. Here are the name of the alcoholic product, the type of alcoholic product, the capacity of the container, the fortress, the name of the manufacturer and its location.
How to identify fake champagne?
It is possible to distinguish what is in front of you - soda with alcohol or real sparkling wine (champagne) by the bubbles. Throw something into the champagne glass, like a cherry. If it instantly becomes covered with small and frequent bubbles - you have real champagne in front of you. If the bubbles are large and rare, they will quickly float to the surface - in front of you is a fake. By the way, any object thrown into a bottle of soda is covered with just such bubbles.
How to identify fake vodka?
It's about checking the appearance of the drink before buying it. There are signs, the presence of which should motivate you to choose another vodka or even a store.
1. Price. As of December 2015, in accordance with the order of Rosalkogolregulirovanie, a bottle of vodka with a capacity of 0.5 liters with an ethyl alcohol content of 40 percent must be sold at retail for at least 195 rubles per bottle. Accordingly, if the capacity of a bottle of vodka is one liter, then the price is twice as expensive. If you prefer a certain brand of vodka, then you should know the average price of a bottle. If in one of the stores the price is 15-30 percent lower, then the risk of buying fake vodka there increases several times. Miracles do not happen, the cost of the same vodka in different stores cannot differ much.
At the same time, it should be noted that earlier it was the low price that gave out fake vodka, but now the counterfeiters have wised up and in most cases sell their surrogate at the price of the original. Therefore, related factors must be taken into account;
2. Color. Real vodka is absolutely transparent without turbidity and sediment at the bottom. To check this, just turn the bottle upside down, hold it for a few seconds and look through it at the sunlight. Vodka should not have third-party particles, orange, light yellow and other shades. If the color changes, then you have poor purification vodka, the alcohol or water of which contains third-party impurities.
How to distinguish ordinary alcohol from technical?
In some cases, it is possible to determine low-quality alcohol only after the bottle is opened. How to distinguish an alcoholic surrogate?
Methyl alcohol in appearance and smell does not differ from ordinary ethyl alcohol.
Therefore, the main protection against poisoning is the purchase of drinks in proven places.
If for some reason you suspect that alcohol is fake, try checking it at home:
If you set fire to a strong drink based on ethyl alcohol, then it should burn with a blue flame, while burning methanol has a green color;
if the drink is transparent, throw a small piece of raw potato into the bottle: in industrial alcohol it will turn pink, and in vodka it will remain white;
If you heat a copper wire on a fire and lower it into a liquid, then methanol will give itself out with an unpleasant pungent smell of formaldehyde, ethanol does not smell at all during the test.
Of course, the wisest thing to do would be to refuse tasting in any doubtful case, even if chemical experiments did not reveal anything suspicious.
How to understand that he was poisoned by a surrogate?
The insidiousness of methanol intoxication lies in the fact that its first symptoms are too similar to the consequences of ordinary drunkenness: a person may complain of dizziness, nausea, severe weakness.
However, other warning signs develop within a few hours. It can be:
Severe pain all over the body;
Deterioration of vision, in which the picture before the eyes can float and obscure dancing spots appear;
Slow heartbeat and breathing;
A coma in which a drunk person does not respond to external stimuli and does not wake up.
Such symptoms are a sign of great trouble. If you suspect methanol poisoning, you need to urgently call an ambulance and start providing first aid on your own.
In 2016, more than 9,000 Russians died from surrogate alcohol poisoning, and another 36,000 were poisoned. How not to fall into this sad statistics?
"Elite alcohol" at cheap prices via the Internet
At the end of 2015, there was a high-profile case - in Krasnoyarsk, 14 people died from poisoning with surrogate whiskey and about a hundred lost their health. They didn't drink cleansing liquids, bath lotions, and suspicious tinctures - they just bought a well-known brand of whiskey on the Internet. And some ended up in a hospital bed, and some in the morgue. By law, the remote sale of alcohol is prohibited, but on the Internet you can find dozens of sites selling alcohol. There, drinks supposedly from well-known manufacturers can be bought 5-10 times cheaper. But what is this “elite alcohol” made of and is it dangerous?
Nobody knows what's inside
Alcohol surrogates are called several types of alcohol-containing products: for example, they include drugs with ethyl alcohol in the composition (including the famous hawthorn tincture), household liquids, technical alcohols - butyl, methyl, ethylene glycol, etc.
The latter are the most dangerous. For example, ethylene glycol leads to kidney and liver failure, and methylene leads to blindness. The outcome may depend on the dose and on what exactly is mixed in a fake drink: for example, the presence of ethyl alcohol reduces the severity of poisoning - it partially neutralizes the effect of methyl alcohol.
Just 50-100 ml of liquid with methanol is enough to poison yourself to death.
Narcologists say that methyl alcohol tastes almost indistinguishable from ethyl alcohol. On the Internet you can find a lot of advice on how to determine the presence of technical alcohols in a drink with improvised means, but experts say that none can be called reliable. Without special analyzes, it is impossible to determine what the surrogate actually consists of.
Something went wrong: how not to miss the poisoning
It turns out that in the case of alcohol, the victim does not have a chance to suspect something was wrong in time. And the people around him, too, because outwardly, when poisoned, nothing strange or suspicious happens to him: he gets drunk, behaves and falls asleep, as usual. It just might not wake up. Or wakes up, and in good health, and then symptoms of poisoning suddenly begin - nausea, vomiting, headache, intense thirst, agitation, problems with breathing and vision. Unfortunately, in this case, not everyone goes to the doctor and can associate poor health with drinking alcohol the day before. Alas, death almost always happens before the victim of burned alcohol gets to the doctors.
The sooner a person who has been poisoned by a surrogate gets to the doctors and gets help, the more chances that he will not lose his health or even life. Unfortunately, both are quite real. Therefore, it is important to suspect something was wrong in time and call an ambulance.
What should alert
- Although poisoning by surrogates does not manifest itself in any way in the early stages, you can suspect something was wrong by the way intoxication comes and goes. If unusually slow, this should alert.
Too much sound sleep after drinking alcohol is a very alarming sign. Relatives of a person who has consumed alcohol should watch him during sleep.
You need to pay attention to any signs of poisoning 1-2 days after drinking alcohol - and go to the hospital immediately if this happens.
A particularly alarming symptom is any visual impairment (double vision, the picture is cloudy, flies flash, etc.).
How not to run into burnt alcohol
Not every counterfeit alcohol is a deadly drink.
It also includes quite high-quality, but illegally produced alcohol. According to various estimates, there are less than 5 percent of a truly dangerous surrogate on the alcohol market, and the risk of running into it, guided by common sense when choosing, is small. However, the advice to simply not drink what is not intended for this is, unfortunately, no guarantee that the deadly product will not fall into your hands.
Here are some tips to help reduce that risk.
1. Buy where it is legal to sell alcohol Do not buy alcohol in kiosks, or on the Internet, or in the market, or from your hands - selling alcohol anywhere else, except for shops and licensed catering, is prohibited.
For the purpose of self-defense, it makes sense to ask other people not to give strong alcohol and not to accept it as a gift - since there are known cases of fatal and severe poisoning with just such “presents”.
2. Choose Your Drinks Carefully
In terms of a surrogate, strong drinks are the most dangerous, and among them are combined ones: whiskey, cognac, rum, etc. In such it is easiest to “hide” dangerous alcohols and any additives in general. Therefore, if you choose complex drinks, you must be one hundred percent sure of their legality and quality. Any doubts - wrong color, strange smell, sediment, suspicious label or excise - should be interpreted in favor of not drinking, even if the place of purchase seems reliable.
You should also be careful when ordering strong alcohol in dubious cafes and restaurants where it is impossible to verify its origin.
3. Read what you buy
According to statistics, only 41 percent of alcohol consumers buy products from well-known manufacturers, paying attention to the brand, and 31 percent do not read labels at all. The former are incomparably less likely to run into a surrogate.
4. Check every bottle
Each legal bottle of alcohol in Russia must have a federal special stamp (if the product is domestic) or an excise stamp (if imported) which is the bearer of EGAIS information. You can check the brand for authenticity right in the store using a mobile device and a special Alco Anti-counterfeit application or on the Rosalkogolregulirovanie website in the “Stamp Check” section.
Every day the demand for expensive and elite drinks is growing. As a result, many fakes appeared on the market, the use of which often leads to severe poisoning. As a rule, counterfeit is quite tolerable alcohol. But at the same time, many pay for it, as for elite alcohol. So how to distinguish burnt alcohol?
Where to buy liquor
You can protect yourself from poisoning only by carefully approaching the choice of alcoholic beverages. You should buy such products only in those organizations that have the appropriate rights and certificates. Most often, burnt alcohol is sold by private individuals who make it themselves. However, some varieties of alcohol can be sold not only by certain companies, but also by individual entrepreneurs. Such drinks include mead, cider, beer, and so on.
You should buy alcohol only in stationary outlets. When buying, the seller must issue a check. It is worth keeping if the quality of the product is in doubt. Other places where drinks containing alcohol are sold are illegal. You should not buy alcohol through online stores, as well as from your hands.
Price is the best reference
Burnt alcohol is very often bottled from under the elite and it is very difficult to distinguish by color or smell when buying. Therefore, first of all, you should pay attention to the cost of the product. Agree, a bottle of good whiskey or cognac cannot cost more than 500 rubles. Often such goods can be seen even in small stalls. It just can't be.
Of course, remembering all the features of the packaging of elite varieties of alcoholic beverages is not so simple. In addition, in a large assortment it is very difficult to navigate for a person who rarely drinks alcohol.
Stickers and excise stamps
If necessary, you can require certificates for alcohol from the seller. However, if you are not a professional merchandiser, you are unlikely to understand the papers provided. Particular attention should be paid to excise stamps and stickers. It is worth paying attention to this even when buying elite alcohol in supermarkets and specialized stores.
An excise stamp is a kind of guarantee of quality. In order not to buy scorched alcohol, always ask for a receipt. You simply won’t get it for counterfeit.
What can be in the bottle
Burnt alcohol poisoning is very difficult to tolerate. Often, after drinking such drinks, a fatal outcome occurs. Therefore, when choosing alcohol, you should be careful. Of course, if the bottle was just vodka, painted over, then such a product does not pose a great danger.
However, there are situations when methanol is sold under the guise of elite alcohol. This is a very dangerous product. In fact, methanol is wood or which belongs to the category of technical liquids. This is a very dangerous and terrible poison. Because of it, people become disabled or die. practically no different from the usual. It is impossible to detect the presence of this substance in the drink even after opening the bottle. The color and taste of methanol resembles ordinary alcohol.
The first signs of poisoning: severe weakness, nausea, dizziness, pain throughout the body, slow breathing and heartbeat, a coma in which a person does not respond to stimuli.
Effective Methods
It is very difficult to distinguish burnt alcohol from the real one. However, there are several proven methods:
- First, light the drink. Ethyl alcohol burns with a blue flame, while wood alcohol burns with green.
- If the alcohol is clear, then fresh potatoes can be thrown into it. In it will remain white, and in methyl it will acquire a pinkish tint.
- You can lower the red-hot wire into the container with the drink. At the same time, ethyl alcohol will not smell, and methyl alcohol will smell sharply of formaldehyde.
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