Formaldehyde could happen by accident during the process (it's the aldehyde form of methanol). The organic solvents (kerosene, gasoline, benzene, ether, chlora

Formaldehyde could happen by accident during the process (it's the aldehyde form of methanol). The organic solvents (kerosene, gasoline, benzene, ether, chloraform, carbolic acid, acetone) would be used to break up the azeotrope during distillation to 100% ethanol. You can't make 100% ethanol without making it poisonous. It's still poisonous now that prohibition is over. The rest are primitive bitterants of one form or another to make poisonous denatured alcohol less palatable-- they're there to save lives by making it so disgusting that you spit it out instead of swallowing it. We still add bitterants to denatured alcohol (and to rubbing alcohol, and nail polish, and spray cans), but they're way more bitter than any of those. You're just freaking out because the chemicals sound scary. The author goes out of his way to mention strychnine just to scare you about brucine, but it's still used as a bitterant. Look I don't doubt some people callously said people who died or went blind drinking denatured alcohol or wood alcohol got what they deserved because they shouldn't have been drinking it anyway. I do doubt that these things were put in industrial alcohol to kill people. The bitterants are there for the exact opposite reason.