3 ms·
> Do you realize this ideia of poison alcohol was propaganda done by the government Methanol poisoning is a VERY real thing. Methanol is easily accidentally pr
by donatj 5y ago
> Do you realize this ideia of poison alcohol was propaganda done by the government
Methanol poisoning is a VERY real thing. Methanol is easily accidentally produced when using a poorly calibrated still and not throwing out enough of the early product, particularly while processing alcohol made from corn where pectin helps create methanol. It’s very real and very dangerous.
The problem is ethanol (the good alcohol) laced with a small amount of methanol won’t immediately cause obvious health issues, they tend to creep up over time especially given continued consumption.
The government did however also purposely release horribly adulterated alcohol into the black market during prohibition and literally kill people, which is probably where your belief of it all being propaganda comes from.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_toxicity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol_toxicity
- https://sciencing.com/test-alcohol-methanol-8714279.html https://sciencing.com/test-alcohol-methanol-8714279.html
- https://slate.com/technology/2010/02/the-little-told-story-of-how-the-u-s-government-poisoned-alcohol-during-prohibition.html https://slate.com/technology/2010/02/the-little-told-story-o...
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago>Methanol is easily accidentally produced when using a poorly calibrated still and not throwing out enough of the early product, Easily? Yes. Easily done unintentionally? No way in hell. You don't even need to calibrate anything, just throw out the first bunch of stuff that comes out of the still. There's a ~10deg hop after the methanol is done boiling during which the still almost stops producing. You just throw out everything that comes before (and during) that reduced flow.