I know that in the Czech Rep methanol poisoning was not "by purpose". Obviously nobody intends to poison others, he would have to be f***g stupid to do that.
But the Czech Rep the case went like this:
For several years in the past, these particular moonshiners were buying antifreeze from Poland, and that antifreeze contained ethanol. Ethanol is basically the alcohol part. They extracted the ethanol, concentrated it and made fake booze. It was cheaper than to buy ethanol legally, because that would mean paying taxes. But the illegal booze, was indeed, "healthy".
Then all of a sudden, the producer of antifreeze in Poland changed the antifreeze formula, and replaced ethanol part for methanol. I mean, for car engines, ethanol/methanol makes no difference in antifreeze. Well, last winter batch, someone in Czech Republic forgot to read the sticker. A classic fallacy, what worked yesterday has to work today as well. But, this time, there was methanol in the antifreeze and nobody noticed.
The moonshiners extracted the methanol same way they did with ethanol, and because both look same, again, nobody noticed. They filled methanol into booze and there they went to sell it on the black market. It was not some evil plan to poison people, it was a simple case of greed and failure to pay attention and exercise carefulness.
Had anybody dared to read the sticker on that antifreeze.... many many lives would have been saved and countless other people would not be walking deads now.
But the Czech Rep the case went like this:
For several years in the past, these particular moonshiners were buying antifreeze from Poland, and that antifreeze contained ethanol. Ethanol is basically the alcohol part. They extracted the ethanol, concentrated it and made fake booze. It was cheaper than to buy ethanol legally, because that would mean paying taxes. But the illegal booze, was indeed, "healthy".
Then all of a sudden, the producer of antifreeze in Poland changed the antifreeze formula, and replaced ethanol part for methanol. I mean, for car engines, ethanol/methanol makes no difference in antifreeze. Well, last winter batch, someone in Czech Republic forgot to read the sticker. A classic fallacy, what worked yesterday has to work today as well. But, this time, there was methanol in the antifreeze and nobody noticed.
The moonshiners extracted the methanol same way they did with ethanol, and because both look same, again, nobody noticed. They filled methanol into booze and there they went to sell it on the black market. It was not some evil plan to poison people, it was a simple case of greed and failure to pay attention and exercise carefulness.
Had anybody dared to read the sticker on that antifreeze.... many many lives would have been saved and countless other people would not be walking deads now.