The Denatured Alcohol Mandate
The United Russia deputies brought in Wednesday a bill made out to reduce intoxication by alcohol surrogate. The bill commits makers of methyl and isopropyl alcohol generally used for surrogate to denature the product by adding, for example, gasoline to it. The purpose to attain is to end the era of drinking cleansers, which may yield up to 5 billion rubles to strong drink producers.
It was a group of United Russia deputies that brought in to the State Duma amendments to the Act of State Control of Alcohol Production and Sales. The essence of the bill is to oblige makers of methyl and isopropyl alcohol to add components that may “scare the people attempting to drink it, for instance, the gasoline or kerosene,” explained Pavel Shapkin from Economy Policy Committee of the State Duma.
Actually, the methyl alcohol and isopropyl alcohol are being denatured now, Shapkin said. But they use diethyl phthalate, which has neither taste nor smell. “So for many years, our citizens are drinking fluid for making a fire.”
One of the bill’s masterminds, Valery Draganov, said legislators started thinking of mandatory denaturing “after mass poisoning by surrogate in some regions of Russia.” From mid.-1980s, some Russians are drinking bath cleansers, fluid for unfreezing the locks and antiseptics as a substitute for vodka, which they cannot afford.
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All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 12, 2006
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