January 19, 2009
Scientists warn of toxic moonshine
Scientific researcher Vu Thi Minh Hanh has confirmed that an increasing amount of Vietnam’s home-made booze has become poison.
This is because more home distillers use a popular cheap Chinese yeast instead of their traditional strains, unaware that it’s harmful, says the Health Ministry’s Health Strategy and Policy Institute deputy director.
The scientist, who studied the harm done by home-distilled alcohol, says 90% of home-made alcohol doesn’t meet the State’s hygiene standards.
“Distillers make their alcohol for money,” she says. “Its toxicity is much higher than that made in a proper distillery.”
Her study shows that aldehyde acetic, or vinegar, concentrate in much home-made alcohol is 235mg per litre.
The acceptable standard at the Ha Noi Brewery is 11mg per litre.
The ethyl acetic concentrate in home-made alcohol is 3,650mg per litre and for acetic 1,400mg per litre compared with the distillery’s 45mg per litre and 20mg per litre.
The impact of these chemical substances is detrimental to both physical and mental health, says Vu Thi Minh Hanh.
The victims of home-made alcohol total 10% of the patients admitted to Son La General Hospital’s Casualty Ward each year.
“The figures prove that a lot of home-made alcohol is harmful to the health of its drinkers,” she says.
“Worse the majority of Vietnam’s drinkers, about 96%, prefer home-made alcohol to brand alcohol.”
The scientist investigated three provinces – Son La, in northern Vietnam; Thanh Hoa, in the centre, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau in southern Vietnam.
Popular holiday drink
Unofficial figures show about 90 incidents of poisoning from home-made alcohol throughout Vietnam each year.
Hanoi’s Bach Mai Hospital Anti-poisoning Unit deputy chief Dr Pham Due says the number of poisonings from home-made liquor fell to just three last year.
“But, I’m deeply concerned that most distillers make their alcohol in poor hygienic conditions,” he says.
“The sterilisation, essential to safe alcohol, is not done.”
“We haven’t the equipment to check the comparative toxicity of home-made alcohol.”
HCM City Public Health and Hygiene Institute deputy director Dr Nguyen Xuan Mai warns that although the use of methanol is banned by the Vietnam Government, many dishonest home-distillers use industrial alcohol for their booze.
“Methanol is the main ingredient of industrial alcohol,” he says.
Health Ministry Food Hygiene and Safety Department director Tran Dang says investigations in 20 provinces has proved that 1,500 types of home-made alcohol freely available in the market have no recognised standard of quality.
The State can’t control the brewing or distilling of traditional alcohol in minority regions, he says.
Further, many types of alcohol popular throughout the country are made in unsafe conditions with unexamined herbs and animals, including a variety of reptiles, immersed in it.
Le Mat snake village in Hanoi’s outlying Gia Lam District markets numerous bottles complete with various species of snakes and carrying a variety of names that attract mostly male drinkers.
The Alcohol, Beer and Beverage Research Institute estimates the yearly production of Vietnam’s home-made distillers at 220mil litres.
But Health Ministry Health Strategy and Policy Institute director Vu Thi Minh Hanh puts the yearly total at 250mil litres – two and a half times more than that produced in proper distilleries.
