Five deaths from methanol poisoning confirmed in Brazil
The Brazilian Ministry of Health announced Wednesday (Oct. 8) that five deaths resulting from drinking alcohol contaminated with methanol have been confirmed, all in São Paulo.
The number of confirmed cases of contamination has also grown. Poisoning has reached 24 cases. Another 11 cases are under investigation – six in São Paulo state, one in Mato Grosso do Sul, three in Pernambuco, and one in Paraíba. There are also 235 reports of people who have shown symptoms.
Methanol added
Also on Wednesday, the Criminalistics Institute of the São Paulo Scientific Police confirmed that the methanol found in the contaminated bottles had been added, as its concentration is anomalous and is not a product of natural distillation.
Distillation tends to generate several types of alcohol – methanol being one of the lightest – which tend to remain at the top of the volume, whether it is a handmade wooden barrel or an industrial one containing hundreds of liters. This “head,” as it is called, must be separated, a process that chemists and chemical engineers monitor and coordinate.
The separation is done by temperature, as methanol has a boiling point of 64.7 °C, while ethanol’s is 78.4 °C. A concentration below 0.25 ml per 100 ml of volume is accepted by technical agencies as it does not pose a risk to consumers.
“In professional distilleries, properly operated by professionals accredited by [local chemistry councils], this initial fraction is discarded, as it contains the lightest and most toxic alcohols. However, in artisanal or clandestine production, this control is often not carried out properly, resulting in a higher concentration of methanol in the final beverage,” a chemistry council in Sergipe state stated in a technical note. According to the agency, doses of 4 ml or more of methanol can cause damage including blindness, and doses above 20 ml can be fatal.
