Consumption of spurious liquor laced with Methanol  in Kallakurichi district of Tamil Nadu has cost 34 lives and caused severe injuries to many others.

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• Tamil Nadu: Liquor sales in Tamil Nadu are controlled by the State, through around 5,000 outlets with  the manufacture, trade, storage, and sale of methanol requiring licences under the 1959 Rules.

• Last year also witnessed the death of approx 20 people from consuming spurious liquor  in the State’s Chengalpattu and Villupuram districts
  • The police determined that the arrack sellers (Arrack is distilled from the fermented sap of the palm tree) had purchased industrial-grade methanol from factories and had sold it to the victims.

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Spurious Liquor or Hooch

• Hooch: It is a commonly used term for poor quality alcohol, or is an alcohol meant to intoxicate.
  • It is derived from Hoochinoo, a native Alaskan tribe that was known to produce very strong liquor.
• Production Process: Hooch is produced in a much more crude setting using distillation of a fermented mixture, generally of locally available yeast, and sugar or fruit (often fruit waste). 
  • Rudimentary setup:  It often employs just a big vat where the mixture is boiled, a pipe that captures and carries the alcoholic fumes, and another pot where concentrated alcohol condenses. Multiple rounds of distillation are carried out, to produce more potent alcohol.
• Key Ingredient: It typically is a homemade liquor to which methanol (Industrial Alcohol) is additionally mixed to strengthen the intoxicating effects or increase the bulk volume of the solution.

What is Methanol?

• Chemical Formula: The methanol molecule (CH3OH) consists of one carbon atom bonded with three hydrogen atoms and one hydroxyl group.
• Production: Methanol is produced by combining carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the presence of copper and zinc oxides as catalysts at 50-100 atm of pressure and 250° C.
• Application: Industrial applications of methanol use it as a precursor to acetic acid, formaldehyde, and aromatic hydrocarbons. It is also used as a solvent and as antifreeze
• Laws and Regulation: 
• • The Food Safety and Standards (Alcoholic Beverages) Regulations 2018: It stipulates the maximum permissible quantity of methanol in different liquors. 
    • Range: These values span a wide range, including “absent” in coconut fenny, 50 grams per 100 litres of country liquor, and 300 grams per 100 litres of pot-distilled spirits.
  • Methanol is included in the Schedule I of the Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical Rules 1989. 
  • Quality: The Indian Standard IS 517 applies to how the quality of methanol is to be ascertained
  • Packaging: The Tamil Nadu Denatured Spirit, Methyl Alcohol, and Varnish (French Polish) Rules 1959, ascertains what signage methanol packaging should carry.

Methanol Poisoning

• Concentration In the Human Body:
  • A body can still have about 33% of Methanol once introduced even after 48 hours. It is completely absorbed via the gastrointestinal tract and the blood methanol level can reach its maximum value within 90 minutes.
  • Natural Presence: Although, the human body contains infinitesimal quantities of methanol (4.5 ppm in the breath of healthy individuals) as a result of eating some fruits. 
    • More than 0.1 ml of pure methanol per kilogram of body-weight can be devastating for a human body.
• Metabolic acidosis: Regular intake of Methanol can cause a condition called Metabolic acidosis which is the accumulation of formic acid over time in the body.  
  • Process: The ADH enzymes metabolise methanol in the liver once ingested  to form formaldehyde (H-CHO). Then ALDH enzymes convert formaldehyde to formic acid (HCOOH) which when accumulated leads to a condition called metabolic acidosis.
    • Formic acid also interferes with an enzyme called cytochrome oxidase, disrupting cells’ ability to use oxygen and leading to the build-up of lactic acid and contributing to acidosis.
      • The formic acid begins accumulating in dangerous amounts in the body  around 18-24 hours after ingestion, affecting the optic nerve, kidneys, the heart, and the brain.
  • Acidification of Blood: Metabolic acidosis further leads to acidaemia ie. when the blood’s pH drops below its normal value of 7.35, becoming increasingly acidic.
• Risk: 
  •  Methanol consumption can lead to methanol-induced optic neuropathy.
    • It is a serious condition that  causes damage and loss of function of the optic nerve and retina and may result in long-term or irreversible visual impairment or even blindness 
      • Ophthalmic effects have been observed in 50% of those who have consumed methanol, and they become apparent within 24 hours.
  • Methanol-poisoning can also cause cerebral edema, haemorrhage, and death.

• Treatment of methanol-poisoning: 
  • Administer pharmaceutical-grade ethanol: Ethanol competes very well with methanol for the ADH enzymes, which metabolise ethanol around 10x faster. As a result, the methanol is kept from being metabolised to formaldehyde.
  • Antidote: An antidote called fomepizole needs to be administered which slows the action of the ADH enzymes, causing the body to produce formaldehyde at a rate the body can quickly excrete.
    • Both fomepizole and folinic acid are in the WHO’s list of essential medicines.
  • Folinic acid: It encourages the formic acid to break up into carbon dioxide and water.
  • Dialysis: The individual may also undergo a dialysis to remove methanol and formic acid salts from the blood, and mitigate damage to the kidneys and the retina.

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