Blindness is mostly a prohibition-era meme that was explicitly pushed by the government, and there hasn't really been any impetus to correct it. Toxic products

Blindness is mostly a prohibition-era meme that was explicitly pushed by the government, and there hasn't really been any impetus to correct it. Toxic products (that aren't ethanol) are trivially easy to avoid during routine distilling. Basically, the most nasty, toxic stuff is also the stuff with the lowest boiling point; it comes out first. So collect the first 20-50 milliliters of output, toss it out, and you've removed the vast, vast majority of it. Repeat that again during 2nd and/or 3rd distillations and it's not a risk at all. And remember: all of that stuff that makes you go blind is already in your beer / wine / etc., it's just more concentrated after distilling. Methanol production from higher rates of pectin in grapes is why red wine hangovers are the worst, for example. The receptors that are damaged and make you go blind also react to ethanol, so the reason methanol-heavy wines don't make you go blind is that the ethanol gets there first and in higher volume. Really, the bigger risk IMO is fire and explosions. Ethanol is not just flammable, it's combustible and can absolutely burn your house down if you're not condensing and ventilating your still. Trivially easy to avoid, however, with working tap water and a $15 box fan, or even a garage with a good breeze.