Denatured Alcohol

Denatured alcohol represents ethyl (wine) alcohol with the addition of certain difficult-to-remove organic compounds that give the alcohol an unpleasant smell and taste. Denatured alcohol is intended for various technical and medical purposes, but by no means for the manufacture of any alcoholic beverages. Denatured alcohol is not subject to excise tax, which is why it is sold many times cheaper than rectified alcohol, which ensures the widespread distribution of this necessary product for technical needs. The purpose of denaturing ethyl alcohol is to give it, by adding various substances (denaturants), properties that would make it unfit for drinking. The following technical requirements are imposed on denaturants: they should give the alcohol repulsive smell and taste, be easily detectable by precise reactions, be inexpensive, not serve as an obstacle to the use of alcohol for its technical purpose, and have properties that make their separation from alcohol impossible, or at least not by simple physicochemical methods. The main denaturants, close to these requirements, adopted in the practice of European countries and in our country, are methyl (wood) alcohol and pyridine bases; in addition, kerosene, gasoline, acetone, formalin, thymol, ketone oil, etc. are also used. As an indicator of denaturation (general), some aniline dye-fuchsin, crystal violet, etc. is added. Denaturation recipes, the quality of the denaturants themselves, as well as methods for their testing are strictly regulated. In the USSR, the release of alcohol for technical needs and its denaturation (since 1928) is carried out in accordance with a special government instruction [News of the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR, No. 34 (349), 1927/28]. According to this instruction, depending on the purpose of the alcohol, general (complete) or special (incomplete) denaturation of the alcohol is carried out. For general denaturation, 5 recipes are proposed, and the choice of them is left to the institution carrying out the denaturation, depending on the availability of certain denaturants. General denaturation of rectification waste without the addition of pure alcohol to them (or with the addition of no more than 50% alcohol) can be carried out by adding only 1 part of wood alcohol and 0.1 part of a violet dye solution per 100 parts of absolute alcohol. For specific technical needs that do not allow the use of general (complete) denaturation, various methods of special (incomplete) denaturation are indicated (depending on the purpose of the alcohol); thus, for medical-disinfection needs, for washing hands, disinfection of the operating field, etc.-0.2 parts of formalin per 100 parts of absolute alcohol or 1 g of thymol per 1 liter of alcohol with a strength of not less than 90°; for the preparation of botanical, zoological, medical preparations, for educational and scientific purposes-1 part of wood alcohol or 1 part of formalin or 1 part of petroleum gasoline per 100 parts of absolute alcohol. For the production of various chemical-pharmaceutical preparations (chloroform, iodoform, ethers, chloral hydrate, tannin, etc.), special methods are also indicated; among them, in some cases, denaturants are certain substances in known quantities that are intended to be prepared. Special methods of denaturing alcohol intended for the manufacture of vinegar, lacquers and polishes, essences, perfumes and colognes, toilet waters, transparent soap and ceresite are also indicated. The instruction details the testing methods and properties that the denaturants used must meet. To judge the amount of consumption of denatured alcohol in our country, the data relating to the pre-revolutionary period (in buckets of absolute alcohol) are given below. Years Cities Villages Total 1,745,730 0,817,910 1,927,300 0,384,100 1,836,130 0,269,150 2,063,640 2,311,400 2,106,280 Since July 16, 1914, from the day of the announcement of compulsory sobriety in Russia, denatured alcohol unexpectedly acquired a new use and began to be used by the population instead of the disappeared vodka as its surrogate. In addition to denatured alcohol, liquids made from it-lacquer, polish, cologne, etc.-were also used for the same purposes. Articles that appeared in the medical press at this time, already from the last quarter of 1914, pointed to the threatening scale of consumption of denatured alcohol as a vodka surrogate, in connection with which numerous poisonings and fatal cases were noted. Denatured alcohol was obviously consumed internally in our country even before the introduction of compulsory sobriety, but in relatively small amounts. Individual cases of poisoning with it were noted in the hospitals of large cities. However, from the very first days of the vodka ban, the number of poisoning cases sharply increased. Thus, in the St. Petersburg Obukhov hospital for the first 6 months of sobriety, from July 17 to December 31, 1914, there were admitted: poisoned by denatured alcohol-861 people, by polish-382, and by a mixture of them-48, for a total of 1,291 people. (The amount of denatured alcohol consumed ranged from 1/4 to 2 1/2 glasses.) According to the Moscow City Administration, in the city hospitals from July 17, 1914 to January 10, 1915, there were delivered: poisoned by denatured alcohol-479 people, by polish-5, by cologne-15, and by wood alcohol-6, for a total of 505 people; of them 88 people died. The clinical picture of acute denatured alcohol poisoning is as follows: 85% of cases-severe intoxication with loss of consciousness; sometimes (3.3%) complications from the psyche-hallucinations, prolonged disturbance of consciousness; even more rarely-tremor and general convulsions; dilation of the pupils is noted, their sluggish reaction; temperature-normal; often-vomiting, pain in the epigastric region; sometimes a fall in cardiac activity with muffled tones, irregular pulse, cooling of the extremities and cyanosis; number of breaths-more often 20-24; in the exhaled air a clear smell of denatured alcohol; the number of erythrocytes and Hb-normal; urine often of low specific gravity (1.010-1.005), which may be explained by past alcoholism. Recovery was rapid, and on the second day most patients were discharged. The consequence of internal consumption of denatured alcohol was many cases of partial or even complete loss of vision. In the St. Petersburg Eye Hospital (from July 21, 1914 to April 14, 1915), 80 diseases from vodka surrogates were observed, of which 4 from methyl alcohol, 54 from denatured alcohol, 3 from polish, 6 from a mixture of polish and cologne, and 12 from cologne; of all patients, 10% became blind, and the rest developed a sharp decrease in visual acuity. In the St. Petersburg Peter and Paul Hospital for the entire year 1915, 102 cases of amblyopia were noted as a result of denatured alcohol poisoning. In the Moscow Alexeyev Eye Hospital, it was noted: for 1914-18 cases, for 1915-181 cases, and for 1916-458 cases in connection with the consumption of denatured alcohol; of all patients, 5% became blind, and the rest developed a sharp decrease in visual acuity. Visual impairment in chronic denatured alcohol poisoning is characterized by two constant signs-a decrease in visual acuity (in most cases less than 0.5 of normal) and disturbance of color perception; less constant signs-peripheral narrowing of the visual field, changes in the fundus of the eye and changes in the pupils. The patho-anatomical picture in denatured alcohol poisoning differs from that in acute ethyl alcohol poisoning in that, in addition to the usual picture of death from asphyxia in the latter (pale skin, dark red liquid blood, its overflow of the brain and internal organs, etc.), desquamative esophagitis, acute catarrhal bronchitis and protein-fatty degeneration of the liver and kidneys are observed. When evaluating the toxicological effect on the animal organism of the denaturants mentioned, based on data from the specialized literature (Kravkov, Kobert), it must be concluded that of them, wood methyl alcohol is the most harmful, followed by pyridine bases. The effect of methyl alcohol on the organism in general is similar to ethyl alcohol, but it is significantly longer-death with symptoms of increasing weakness and paralysis of respiration sometimes occurs after a long period after taking the alcohol. A characteristic feature is the rapid onset of visual impairment, which sometimes reaches complete blindness (optic neuritis). One of the typical changes in poisoning is severe fatty degeneration of the liver. The lethal dose of methyl alcohol for a person can be considered 50-75 g, but even smaller doses (11-12 g) can be considered dangerous to life. The prolonged action of methyl alcohol and its toxicity are probably explained by its retention in the body, as well as its oxidation in significant quantities into relatively poisonous formic acid (found in urine in case of methyl alcohol poisoning). Slow excretion from the body and incomplete combustion probably also explain the cumulative effect of methyl alcohol. Pyridine bases, being a mixture of pyridine C6H5N and its homologs: picoline C6H7N, lutidine C7H9N, etc., represent a homologous series of complex nitrogen-containing compounds with the general formula CnH2n-5N. They are formed during the dry distillation of coal tar, bone oil, and other nitrogen-containing substances; a poisonous liquid with a sharp smell and an unpleasant taste.

Poisoning from alcohol denatured with methyl alcohol led in 1914 to a resolution by the Medical Council regarding the desirability of replacing the poisonous methyl alcohol with some other harmless substance. Such a substance was (by competition) proposed as a new denaturant - carbinolal (ethylmethylene glycol). At the end of 1915, the Medical Council, on the basis of laboratory data from Pzhibytek, permitted the use of carbinolal, but with the indication that its complete harmlessness remained unproven. At the suggestion of Khlopin, carbinolal was subjected to special experimental study in the work of Kravskaya-Kolosova, whose conclusions were against carbinolal; it turned out that carbinolal does not give the alcohol it denatures a repulsive taste and smell, and that under the influence of gastric juice (in in vitro experiments) it decomposes with the formation of formaldehyde and causes acute diphtheritic inflammation and necrosis of the gastric mucosa. In foreign literature, poisonings from methyl alcohol are also mentioned; for example, in Berlin (in 1910 and 1911) 170 cases of poisoning from vodka adulterated with methyl alcohol were noted, with a high percentage of mortality and blindness. It is indicated that D. s. often causes eczema in persons who, by virtue of their profession, come into prolonged contact with it (e.g., furniture polishers), while the irritating property is attributed to wood alcohol and pyridine bases. This professional harm can be eliminated if alcohol for these purposes is not sold with general (complete) denaturation, but with special denaturation.