Nguyen Hung Phan, 44, is treated at HCMC’s Gia Dinh People’s Hospital on Friday. Phan suffered permanent brain damage after drinking poisonous methanol.

A probe into drinking deaths finds a thriving spurious liquor industry.

The officials were rushed to investigate the local alcohol trade after several drinking-related deaths came to light.

Four people in Binh Thanh District died in a local hospital on September 29 and 30. Hoang Van Cong, 33, Nguyen Van Teo, 47, Thai Van Tan, 55, and another unidentified man had been brought in unconscious after a drinking session on September 28.

On September 27, the district’s Gia Dinh People’s Hospital received local Nguyen Hung Phan in the same critical condition.

Blood tests on all the patients showed high levels of methanol. Investigators pursuing the case took nine samples of alcohol products for testing from the Saigon Food Company (Safoco) in Thu Duc District and Kha Doanh Company in Tan Phu District.

All nine samples had methanol content 70-172 times higher than allowed, the Quality Assurance and Testing Center III (Quatest III) told HCMC Health Department last Thursday.

The center also investigated Safoco buyers and distributors, forcing the company to take back its products from the market under the supervision of local administration and health officials.

Methanol is a toxic chemical used as solvent, fuel, and in antifreeze solutions for motor vehicles. The allowable content of this substance in any potable alcoholic beverage is less than 0.1 percent.

The amount of methanol found in Safoco’s cooking alcohol (rice wine) was 7 percent; Safoco Vodka, 17.2 percent; lemon rum, 7.2 percent; orange rum, 7.6 percent; berry rum 8.2 percent; pip banana wine, 7percent; sticky rice wine 7.3-7.6 percent; and Go Den Vodka Mint, 7.1 percent.

Earlier, Safoco had bought 3,000 liters of industrial alcohol at VND10,000 (60 cents) a liter from Kha Doanh and another company to make the liquors, simply by pouring the alcohol into water and adding aromatic spices, a company employee, who declined to be named, told investigators on Thursday.

Safoco uses one liter of the alcohol to make four liters of wine, which is priced at VND4,000-20,000 (24 cents-$1.21) a bottle of half or one liter.

The officials also found thousands of bottles in the Safoco store house without labels.

These labels and the production date are only fixed to the bottles on orders from the customer, the company told the investigators.

On Thursday night, the officials also inspected An Phuoc Thinh Company in Hoc Mon District. The company supplied alcohol to Kha Doanh Company.

Besides food-based alcohol, the inspectors found industrial alcohol and other chemicals including 5,705 kilograms of methanol.

HCMC health officials have required the Hoc Mon Health Office to ensure that An Phuoc Thinh does not release the tested products into the market.

The city Department of Health suggested last Friday that HCMC administration ask its market management bureau, economic police and district authorities to tightly control the sale of alcohol, especially products already found with high methanol rates.

The department itself will continue inspections of alcohol producers, said Huynh Le Thai Hoa, head of the department’s food safety management office.

On Saturday, District 7 health officials investigated a local distillery and found more than 100 liters of alcohol of dubious origin. In July, more than 227 liters of liquor without clear origin were taken out of the city market. But it did not stop the trading.

In District 5’s Kim Bien market, caramel is being sold at VND17,000 ($1) a kilogram to make the mixture of water and alcohol look like liquor. Aromatic spices are also available from VND150,000-350,000 ($9-21) a kilogram to make the “wine” smell like whisky or rum.

Trading in spurious alcohol has not only attracted HCMC businesses, but also those in the Mekong Delta region.

Many street bars in the region are selling wine at VND4,000-12,000 a liter.

At current rice prices, white rice wine should be priced at VND10,000-12,000 a liter and sticky rice wine at VND18,000-20,000 a liter, said a distillery owner in Soc Trang District who didn’t wish to be named.

Tran Cong Tao, now running a distillery in Ben Tre Province, said his wine is made from sticky rice and one liter of white wine costs at least VND12,000. “It’s hard to understand that someone can sell at VND6,000-8,000.”

In the city’s neighboring province of Long An, a distillery in Ben Luc District’s My Yen Commune uses alcohol to double the amount of liquor collected.

Some saccharine is added “so that we can claim the wine is sweet as it is produced completely from sticky rice,” says Ba T., a former wine dealer.

A test by the Food Hygiene and Safety Office under the Ministry of Health in May showed that the wine produced at home by local distilleries like these contain 300 times more methanol than allowed.

Can Tho City resident Tung once owned a bar for more than five years but “never dared to drink the wine sold at my bar.

“Most of the wine products are made from water, industrial alcohol and a special chemical that we called Chinese enzyme,” says Tung.

Can Tho City and Soc Trang, Hau Giang and Bac Lieu provinces have all reported deaths related to drinking locally produced wine.

In Hau Giang alone, there have been seven deaths in late April and early May.

The Can Tho Central General Hospital last year received 50 patients in critical condition after drinking liquor and it has seen more than 30 cases since the beginning of this year.

The hospital doesn’t have the equipment to measure the level of methanol so it can only conclude that the chemical is “highly suspected” as the main cause of patients’ deaths, says Dr. Nguyen Minh Vu.

Drinking 100-200 milliliters of methanol can have dangerous effects and more than that can cause blindness or death, according to the doctor.

Vu says some provinces in the region have inspected local alcohol retailers and found many alcohol products with methanol levels at 1,000 times more than accepted.

He also recommended drinkers use products of clear origin and control the quantity they drink.

“People should be careful with the alcohol mixed with other materials, which can be poisonous.”

“Don’t mix the alcohol with other gas beverages as it’ll make you drink more and don’t take a bath in cold water or sleep in low temperature after drinking.”

“Drinking without eating can lower the blood sugar level,” Vu said.

Source: TN, TT