Medical alcohol cannot be distinguished by its smell or color from industrial alcohol, which should never be consumed because it contains methyl. This substance causes severe intoxication and can even lead to the death of a person. Despite the fact that it is also a poisonous substance, there is no threat to life with moderate use. What is its composition?

What is rubbing alcohol?

Rubbing alcohol is a type of ethanol.

This is the purest product without any impurities. It contains alcohol (from 96.4 to 96.7%) and water (about 4%).

Because of this composition, it began to be used not only in medicine, but also in the food industry. At home, they drink it diluted, it turns out alcohol of 40% strength.

You can buy it at the pharmacy. It is sold in bottles of various dosages. Seemingly transparent liquid.

Unlike industrial alcohol, it is made only from food raw materials. It can be raw materials such as potatoes, wheat, corn, millet, rye, oats, barley, beets or molasses. In some cases, berries or grapes are used as raw materials, then ethyl alcohol of a wine variety is obtained, which is used for making wine.

Unlike medical alcohol, you cannot drink technical alcohol, since it is made from synthetic raw materials by hydrolysis from wood or oil products. It is mainly used as a fuel or solvent.

All alcohols contain ethanol, but only medical alcohol is the highest purity ethyl alcohol, which is why it is so popular in various industries.

Ethyl alcohol is highly soluble in water, glycerin and acetic acid.

Where is this type of alcohol used?

Application

Despite the fact that the instructions for this tool say that it can only be used externally for disinfection, but it is also used internally, in the form of alcohol.

But above all, this type of alcohol is used in medicine as:

• antiseptic for wounds, cuts, scratches;
• a preparation for treating the doctor's hands, tools, the operating field and the patient's skin during the operation;
• a disinfectant and drying agent that kills all bacteria and infections on the surface of the skin;
• solvent or preservative for tinctures, medicines, extracts based on plant materials;

• a drug that is used for artificial ventilation;
• products for the treatment of any damage to the skin;
• antipyretic rubdown for fever;
• substances for compresses for sore throat;
• anesthesia, especially in the field of operations.

Apply the product with a cotton swab to the area of ​​the skin that needs to be disinfected.

Medical alcohol is the only one of all ethanols that can become an antidote when poisoned with alcohol toxic substances such as methanol or ethylene glycol.

When taken promptly by mouth, it reduces the concentration of toxic metabolites.

Ethyl alcohol is an irreplaceable substance in medicine, without it, not a single manipulation and operation takes place, because even the injection site, before and after the procedure, is processed for disinfection. Doctors use a remedy of 90%, 70%, and 40% strength. For example, a 40% solution is used for rubdowns and compresses to avoid burns.

In addition to medicine, this type of alcohol is also used in the food industry. Ethyl alcohol is a component of alcoholic beverages, as well as some fermented beverages, such as kvass, kefir or non-alcoholic beer.

In the confectionery and bakery industry, ethanol is used as a preservative or solvent for flavorings.

But medical alcohol is used and not for its intended purpose. Since this product is commercially available, many people with alcohol addiction use it instead of pure alcohol. In this case, alcohol can be life threatening, because in order not to burn the mucous membrane of the stomach and throat, you can drink it only in a diluted form. You can dilute with juice or water, and the strength of the resulting alcohol should not exceed 50 degrees, and even better 40 degrees.

Despite the fact that this type of alcohol does not contain such harmful substances as methanol, but if it is used incorrectly, especially inside, you can get serious diseases.

Harm to the body

The instructions for this medicine indicate that its main purpose is to disinfect the skin, in addition, it cannot be applied to areas of the skin with acute inflammation, since the inflammatory process can intensify due to the warming effect.

The remedy is contraindicated in case of individual intolerance and the age of a child under 14 years of age. Use with caution in pregnant and nursing mothers. If redness or irritation is noted after application to the skin, rinse the area immediately with water. In this case, the use of the drug is prohibited.

Also, do not apply alcohol to the skin around the eyes, as this can cause burns to the mucous membranes. Since the product is not absorbed into the skin when applied externally, it does not in any way affect a person's ability to drive a vehicle.

If used for other purposes, then in this case, ethyl alcohol can become a toxic substance or even have a narcotic effect. It depends on the dose, route of administration, concentration and duration of exposure.

The fact is that ethanol, which is part of medical alcohol, evaporates, and at high concentrations of these vapors, poisoning of the body is possible.

In some cases, in case of an overdose when ingested or when inhaling a large concentration of ethanol in the form of vapors, the functions of the central nervous system are inhibited. Coma, stupor or severe alcohol intoxication may occur, which leads to the appearance of symptoms of intoxication of the body.

With frequent use of this type of alcohol, addiction occurs and alcohol dependence develops. In the body of an alcoholic, endorphins are produced, which increases the desire and drug dependence on alcohol.

Important! Ethanol is a poisonous substance that can cause acute poisoning or even death. With a single use of 4 to 12 g of ethanol per 1 kg of human weight, death is inevitable.

With the abuse of ethyl alcohol, serious diseases of the liver and gastrointestinal tract (gastrointestinal tract) appear, such as ulcers, gastritis, cirrhosis, liver, stomach or esophagus cancer. Various cardiovascular diseases also develop.

When undiluted ethyl alcohol is consumed, the esophageal mucosa burns.

Alcohol dependence causes damage to the cells and neurons of the brain, their destruction and death, as a result of which various diseases of the brain and mental disorders occur.

It is worth remembering that ethanol affects not only the internal organs, but also the nervous system, thereby changing the behavior and character of a person. This leads to constant depression, social degradation, apathy of a person to everything and suicide.

The tool must be used strictly according to the instructions and not used after the expiration date.

One of the worst alcohol poisoning is the use of methyl (technical) alcohol instead of ethyl (food) or medical alcohol. Even a small dose can be fatal. I will tell you how to distinguish methyl alcohol from ethyl alcohol. After the events in the Czech Republic, where thousands of people suffered from counterfeit alcohol containing methanol, this information became vital.

The problem is that technical alcohol does not differ from food alcohol in taste, smell and color. It is this feature that causes the poisoning. Usually methanol is found in solvents, antifreeze liquids and other household chemicals that are not intended to be consumed internally, but due to various circumstances, it can be sold under the guise of drinking.

Methods for determining technical alcohol

1. Origin. Buy alcohol in trustworthy stores, where the risk of becoming a victim of counterfeiting is much lower than at dubious points of sale (stalls, from moonshiners, etc.).

Drink and dilute pure alcohol only from well-known sources. If these are the products of distilleries or medical alcohol, there will be no problems; in all other cases, the risk of accidentally drinking methanol increases many times.

2. Conflagration. This is one of the easiest ways to check. The liquid is ignited and the color of the fire is monitored. Ethanol burns with a blue flame, industrial alcohol - green.

3. Checking with potatoes. A small slice of raw potatoes is thrown into a container with alcohol for several hours. If the potatoes have not changed their color, then this is pure edible alcohol that you can drink. In methanol, potatoes usually take on a pink hue.

4. Formaldehyde test. It is considered one of the most reliable methods. The copper wire is heated over a fire, then immersed in a liquid. If a sharp unpleasant odor appears, you cannot drink alcohol, it is methanol. Conventional ethanol does not emit odor when hot copper wire is immersed in it.

Poisoning symptoms with technical alcohol:

• sharp headache;
• labored breathing;
• general malaise;
• pain in the abdomen and lower back;
• vomit;
• lethargy.

All of these signs are also similar to common alcohol poisoning, so they are often confused. But in the case of methyl poisoning, the consequences are much more serious. Methanol rapidly destroys the visual, nervous and vascular systems. For severe poisoning, 5-10 ml of methanol is enough, and 30 ml causes death.

If, after drinking alcohol, a person becomes ill, doctors recommend calling an ambulance immediately, and not hoping that everything will go away by itself.

Alcohol (ethanol, ethyl alcohol, methylcarbinol, wine alcohol, pentahydrodicarbonium hydroxide, alcohol) is an active component of alcoholic beverages that acts as a depressant on the human central nervous system.
Alcohol properties
Appearance: under normal conditions it is a colorless volatile liquid with a characteristic odor.
Molecular weight 46.069 a. eat.
Evaporating temperature 78.15 ° C
Critical point 241 ° C (at a pressure of 6.3 MPa)
The energy value of ethanol is 7.1 kcal / g.
Solubility: miscible with benzene, water, glycerin, diethyl ether, acetone, methanol, acetic acid, chloroform. A mixture of 96% alcohol and 4% water (95.57% ethanol + 4.43% water) does not separate during distillation.

The history of the origin (origin) of alcohol
The effects of alcoholic beverages and the methods for their production have been known to mankind since biblical times. According to the Old Testament, Noah accidentally drank fermented fruit juice and became drunk. After this incident, the culture of winemaking developed, and the recipe for alcoholic beverages became very diverse.
The production of pure alcohol is based on a distillation process. Scientists suggest that the idea of ​​chemical distillation of liquids dates back to the 1st millennium BC. The distillation process was first described by Aristotle (384-320 BC). Many alchemists of that time were engaged in the improvement of the distillation technique, who believed that through distillation they managed to isolate the soul of wine, due to which the product of distillation was named "spirit of wine" (from the Latin "spiritus vini"). The term "alcohol", which is widely used today, originated from this name.
The process of obtaining alcohol was discovered in various regions of the world almost simultaneously. In 1334, an alchemist from Provence Arnaud de Villger (France) first obtained wine alcohol from grape wine and considered it a healing agent. And in 1360, some French and Italian monasteries produced a wine alcohol called "aquavitae" - "water of life". In 1386, thanks to Genoese merchants, alcohol reached Moscow.
The production of ethyl alcohol began in Europe after the invention in Italy, in the 11th century, of a distillation apparatus. For several centuries, ethyl alcohol was almost never used in its pure form, except in the laboratories of alchemists. But in 1525, the famous Paracelsus noticed that the ether obtained by heating alcohol with sulfuric acid has a hypnotic effect. He described his experience with poultry. And on October 17, 1846, surgeon Warren put the first patient to sleep with ether.
Gradually, alcohol was divided into food and industrial, obtained by splitting wood waste. In England, technical alcohol was exempted from increased sales taxes, since the market value of alcoholic beverages paid for government taxes, but doctors and industrialists could not afford such a cost. To prevent toxic industrial alcohol from being consumed in food, it was mixed with methanol and other unpleasant odor additives.
Subsequently, alcohol gained instant distribution in medicine due to constant wars. In 1913, about 2,400 factories were recorded on the territory of the former USSR, producing mainly vodka and wine. Later, there was a separation of the production of alcohol and vodka.
With the outbreak of the First World War, the production of vodka actually ceased, and the production of alcohol also decreased. Production began to recover only in 1925-1926. The grandiose restoration of the industry began in 1947, new scientific and technical technologies and achievements began to be intensively applied. In 1965 there were 428 factories with an annual output of 127.8 million decaliters of alcohol. In 1975, the production of alcohol increased to 188.1 million decaliters. Due to the increased production of beverages with a lower strength, the consumption of alcohol in the alcoholic beverage industry fell.
Currently, the alcohol industry is one of the largest and most developed industries.

Alcohol types depending on raw materials:
- Food alcohol
- Industrial alcohol
Edible alcohol is produced only from food raw materials. The most common and economical raw material for alcohol production is potatoes. Potato starch is easily boiled, gelatinized and saccharified. In addition to potatoes, cereals are used for the production of alcohol - wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, millet, as well as sugar beets, sugar syrup or molasses. Fruit and berry, grape materials, Jerusalem artichoke and other raw materials rich in carbohydrates are much less commonly used.
Industrial alcohol is obtained from wood or oil products subjected to acid hydrolysis. Industrial alcohol contains an increased amount of harmful impurities, so its use for food purposes is prohibited.

Subspecies:
- Potato
- Woody
- Wheat
- Hydrolytic
- Rye
- Synthetic
- Corn
- Millet
- Oatmeal
- Beetroot
- Sugar molasses

Varieties:
- Crude alcohol
- Rectified alcohol

Alcohol grades, depending on the degree of purification:
- Suite
- Extra
- Highest purification
- 1st grade
Only conditional grain is suitable for the production of luxury and extra alcohol. For alcohol of the highest purity and 1st grade, any food raw material is used.

There are three main stages in the production of alcohol:
- preparatory - purification of raw materials from impurities, preparation of malt or mold cultures;
- basic - digestion of starchy raw materials, saccharification of starch, fermentation of saccharified mass, distillation of mash and obtaining crude alcohol;
- final - rectification.
Crude alcohol (raw alcohol) obtained at the main stage of production cannot be used for food purposes, since it contains many harmful impurities (fusel oils, methyl alcohol, esters). Many impurities are poisonous and give the alcohol an unpleasant odor, so crude alcohol is subjected to purification - rectification.
Removal of harmful impurities is carried out in the rectification process based on different boiling points of ethyl, methyl and higher alcohols, esters. In this case, all impurities are conventionally divided into head, tail and intermediate.
Head impurities have a lower boiling point than ethyl alcohol. These include acetaldehyde and individual esters (ethyl acetate, ethyl formate, etc.) formed during distillation.
Tail impurities are characterized by an increased boiling point compared to ethyl alcohol. They consist mainly of fusel oils and methyl alcohol.
The most difficult to separate fraction are intermediate impurities (ethyl ester of isobutyric acid and other esters). When purifying raw alcohol in rectifiers, harmful impurities are separated and the concentration of alcohol in the finished product increases (from 88% in raw alcohol to 96-96.5% in rectified).

The use of alcohol
-Fuel ... It can be used for rocket engines, internal combustion engines in pure form, in a mixture with classic petroleum liquid fuels. It is used to produce high quality fuel and gasoline component.
- Chemical industry ... Serves as a raw material for the production of many chemicals (acetaldehyde, diethyl ether, tetraethyl lead, acetic acid, chloroform, ethyl acetate, ethylene, etc.). It is used as a solvent (in the paint and varnish industry, in the production of household chemicals and many other areas). It is a component of antifreeze and windscreen washers. And in household chemicals they are used in cleaning and detergents.
- Medicine ... It is used as a solvent, extractant, antiseptic, preservative for tinctures and extracts, antifoam when oxygen is supplied, an antidote for poisoning with certain toxic alcohols.
- Perfumes and cosmetics ... It is a universal solvent for various substances and the main component of perfumes, colognes, aerosols; it is used in a variety of products (toothpaste, shampoo, shower products).
-Food industry ... It is a necessary component of alcoholic beverages (vodka, whiskey, gin, etc.), and is also contained in small amounts in a number of fermented beverages that are not classified as alcoholic (kefir, kvass, kumis, non-alcoholic beer, etc.). It is used as a solvent for food flavorings, a preservative for bakery products, as well as in the confectionery industry. Alcohol is also registered as a food additive E1510.

World alcohol production in 2010:
USA 45 360 million liters
Brazil 24 464.9 million liters
European Union 2,773 million liters
China 1897.18 million liters
India 249.48 million liters
Russia 700 million liters
Thailand 339.4 million liters
Colombia 299.37 million liters

Harmful properties of alcohol:
- has a narcotic, anesthetic and toxic effect depending on the dose, concentration and route of ingestion, as well as the duration of exposure;
- leads to acute poisoning and death (depending on certain doses to body weight and concentrations). A lethal single dose is 4–12 grams of ethanol per kilogram of body weight. However, ethanol is a natural metabolite of the human body, and in certain doses it is used in medicine as an independent drug, as well as a solvent for pharmaceuticals, extracts and tinctures;
- causes gastritis, stomach ulcers, stomach cancer and esophageal cancer with prolonged use;
- causes oxidative damage to neurons in the brain, and with prolonged use - the death of neurons in the brain;
- Alcohol abuse can lead to alcoholism.

Cooking (obtaining) alcohol at home
To obtain alcohol at home, you will need a moonshine still (rectification unit) and raw materials for distillation.
To obtain alcohol from starch-containing raw materials, it is necessary to carry out the following technological operations: prepare malt; choose a yeast mash; to process starchy raw materials; dilute malt milk; mash the main mash; overtake a mature brew; to carry out the rectification of alcohol; check its quality.
The longest time is the stage of malt preparation, which, depending on the type of grain, lasts from 5 to 12 days. Also, the duration of the alcohol preparation process is also influenced by what kind of malt is used: if it is green (fresh), then it is the highest, if dried at a temperature of 40 ° C and harvested for future use, then it decreases to 4-8 days.
Malt - a product of artificial germination of cereal grains, containing active substances - enzymes. These substances break down (saccharify) starch into simple sugars, which are then converted by yeast into alcohol. The malt-making operation requires special cleanliness and care. The period of germination of grains of various crops has a different duration: for barley - 9-10 days; for oats - 8-9 days; for wheat - 7-8 days; for rye 5-6 days; for millet - 4-5 days.

Making malt:
- grain selection ... Only good grain can produce high-quality malt, which is the main condition for making alcohol from raw starch. For the preparation of malt, you can use grain no earlier than two months after harvesting, but no later than a year after its storage. The grain should have a light yellow color, it should be full, equally ripe, tough, thin-skinned and heavy, the inside of the grains should be white, friable, mealy. There should be no impurities in the grain;
- cleaning and sorting of grain ... Grain for malt is sieved through a coarse sieve to remove coarse debris, through a fine sieve to remove weed seeds and other fine debris. Then the grain is washed in hot water at a temperature of 50 ° C to remove dust, chaff and other impurities. It is recommended to change the water several times until it is clean, without turbidity;
- soak ... For soaking, wooden or enameled dishes are used, which must be washed cleanly four days before and filled with raw water up to half. Grain should not be added immediately, but gradually, stirring constantly. After three to four hours, light grains and weeds that have floated to the surface are removed with a colander. Then part of the water is drained, leaving it at a level above the grains of no more than 25 cm. After a few hours, some grains will float to the surface of the water from time to time. They also need to be removed. In the warm season, it is advisable to change the water every 6 hours, and in the cold season - after 12 hours. This is necessary to provide the grain with sufficient oxygen for breathing.
Soaking should be carried out until the grain is completely swollen, which occurs in two to five days, while the moisture and weight of the grain increase to 40%. To stop soaking grain, you must be guided by the following signs:
- the husk is easily separated from the pulp.
- the grain bends between the nails and bends without breaking.
- the skin of the grain is cracked and a sprout is indicated.
- crushed grain can be drawn on the board like a chalk line.

Malt growing
The soaked grain is used for growing, which is carried out in a well-ventilated area. It should not be damp and stuffy.
The temperature in the room is maintained no higher than 15-17 ° C, the grains are scattered on a baking sheet in an even thin layer of no more than 5 cm, covered with a damp cloth. The inflow of fresh air and humidity of at least 40-43% are necessary conditions for the formation of enzymes, so the grain is turned over after five to eight hours three to four times a day.
In the first five days of growing, it is necessary to regularly ventilate and carefully monitor the moisture content of the grain. In the next 4-5 days, the flow of air is limited, which is very important to ensure the process of loosening the starch, reducing its loss in the grain. When root suckers appear, the grain layer increases to 20 cm and its temperature rises to 18-20 ° C. The grain begins to sweat.
An increase in the temperature of the grain at this stage is undesirable, since the possibility of the development of putrefactive microbes increases. This undesirable process can be prevented by stirring and cooling the grain.
Malt growing is suspended in such cases:
- when the root shoots have reached 1 / 3-1 / 2 of the grain length (12-15 mm);
- when the feather under the skin has reached 1 / 2-2 / 3 of the grain;
- when the roots are so adhered to each other that if you take one grain, 4-8 more grains will be pulled along with it;
- when the grains are salted, they completely lost their flour taste and crunch when bitten.

Signs of good germination:
- the color of the grain has not changed;
- the grains have sprouted evenly;
- a pleasant cucumber smell comes from the malt heap;
- the sprouts are fresh, curled and cling to one another.
Then, mash is made from the resulting malt, from which alcohol is obtained as a result of distillation and rectification.

Obtaining raw alcohol (crude alcohol):
The fermentation product tank must be 2/3 full so that there is free space up to the lid. At the initial boiling of the wash in the container, it is necessary to reduce the heating temperature so that the ferrying process does not occur too violently. And continue the distillation, smoothly adjusting the temperature (more - less). The correctness of the adjustment is achieved empirically. When distilling mash into raw alcohol, watch the temperature when the thermometer shows 95 C - this means that there is no alcohol in the fermentation product and the process can be completed. To avoid the spread of an unpleasant odor, raw alcohol should be drained into a closed container (3-liter can), and the tube from which raw alcohol flows out must be pushed into the hole in the lid of the can. The connecting hoses on the column must be made of food grade rubber. Cooling (cold water) must be supplied to the chiller continuously.

Obtaining pure alcohol:
After receiving the raw alcohol, rinse the flask from the remnants of the mash and pour the raw alcohol into it. To obtain alcohol, remove the jumper from the column and install plugs on the branch pipes. At the beginning of the selection of alcohol, the first obtained 5% of the poured volume of raw alcohol should be separated (drained) into a separate container, since these will be ultra-light aldehydes, they can be used to dissolve paints or as gasoline, then alcohol will go. When selecting alcohol, you also need to follow the thermometer readings, they can range from 78 to 82 ° C. After 82 ° C, the alcohol will go with an admixture of water and will be weaker. Therefore, we remove the container into which the alcohol has flowed down to 82 ° C, and in its place we put another container and continue the selection of alcohol up to 95 ° C.

Obtaining ultrapure alcohol:
The peculiarity of distillation is that the selection of the first 5% obtained is halved, but it is better to determine the termination of the first selection by smell: if the smell is unpleasant, unlike alcohol, then the selection should be continued, and if the smell of alcohol, then the first selection can be stopped. It is better to check the smell by mixing this fraction by half with cold water. You don't have to get carried away with the selection, since all odors can be removed by filtration through activated carbon. You should also pay attention to the sampling temperature of pure alcohol up to 80 ° C (the lighter the vapor molecules are, the cleaner and faster they evaporate). Alcohol strength 96% vol.

Alcohol is the main ingredient in almost all alcoholic beverages. But in order to end up with high-quality, tasty, and most importantly safe products, you need to choose the right alcohol.

Alcohol can be of two types: ethyl and methyl. Which one can be drunk or eaten, and what color they burn, we will tell below.

Ethyl or ethanol

Ethyl alcohol is of two types: food and medical. It is suitable for human consumption, however, before that it must be diluted with water, otherwise, due to the high concentration of alcohol, you can get serious burns of the digestive tract and mouth.

Without special manipulations, it is impossible to distinguish methyl alcohol from ethyl alcohol "by eye". Both liquids are transparent, with a characteristic odor, and the same density. True, methyl has a neutral aroma, which is rather weak and is felt only when "sniffing", while ethanol vapors are sharper and shibut in the nose.

This product is obtained by distilling the wort, which has previously passed the fermentation stage. You can also get it yourself at home, however, for this you need to use a special distillate - a moonshine still.

Reference. Homemade moonshine made from quality raw materials and in accordance with technological rules is in no way inferior in quality to industrial alcohol.

But it should be understood that with prolonged use of this ethyl product in large quantities, alcohol dependence may appear. Therefore, all drinks prepared on its basis should be consumed in small quantities.

Methyl or methanol

Methyl or technical alcohol, which is popularly simply called methanol- This is an industrial product, it cannot be used for food in any form. This liquid is obtained from legnin, formic alcohol and wood.

This product is used to make solvents and formaldehyde. When working with such a substance, you should definitely follow safety precautions, since methanol has a strong and pungent aroma, and can also cause severe burns to the epidermis.

Reference. Technical alcohol is absorbed into the body much more slowly than ethanol, it destroys the nervous system, causes severe poisoning, and also impairs vision.

That is why it is very important to use the right product when making your own alcohol-based alcoholic beverages.

When buying alcoholic beverages in stores with a proven track record, the risk of poisoning with a "fired" product is significantly reduced. Most often, drinks with methyl alcohol are sold in stalls, stalls, by hand, at unauthorized points of sale and drinking, as well as near train stations.

How to identify a species?

However, in order to independently determine what kind of alcohol is presented, it is not at all necessary to carry its samples to the laboratory. There are several simple ways to determine the type of alcohol:

1. All that is needed is to set fire to the liquid. You can pour a small amount into any container, or you can simply moisten the edge of a cotton swab and bring it to a fire source. This method does not require the use of any special tools, and the diagnostic result is instant. Ethyl alcohol always burns only with a blue fire, but the flame of methanol is green. But this rule only works for methyl alcohol without unnecessary impurities.
2. There is also the so-called potato test. A small root vegetable is thoroughly cleaned and washed, then cut into two parts and both are placed in a jar. Pour the potatoes with alcohol and leave for 2 -5 hours. If after this period the water has not turned pink, it means that ethyl alcohol, and in the future it can be used.
3. You can add a small amount of baking soda to a container of alcohol. If the container contains ethanol, then the soda will turn yellow and settle at the bottom of the container. If the alcohol is methyl, then it will completely dissolve.
4. Alcohol is slightly warmed up and a couple of ordinary potassium permanganate granules are added to it. If the liquid is of good quality, then no changes will occur. If methanol was heated, then when potassium permanganate gets into it, it will begin to hiss and bubble strongly.
5. If you have a good industrial thermometer at hand, then a small amount of liquid can simply be heated in a metal container. The moment it starts to boil and its temperature should be measured. Ethanol boils at 80 degrees, and methyl alcohol begins to boil at 60 degrees.
6. Lang's test or liquid discoloration. To do this, the test liquid is heated to 18 degrees in a small container. Manganese infusion is immediately poured here and everything is removed from the fire. Now you need to measure the time it will take for the liquid to turn from dark crimson to light pink. The longer this process takes place, the better the quality of the investigated liquid. The best option is considered to be 10 - 20 minutes. For such a sample, 50 g of alcohol, 2 g of water and 0.2 mg of potassium permanganate are required.
7. The simplest but most reliable is the so-called formaldehyde study. All that is needed is to heat the copper wire over high heat and lower it into a container of liquid. After 15 seconds, the copper is removed and sniffed. The more pronounced the aroma of formaldehyde, the lower-quality alcohol, which means that you should never drink it.

Attention! When buying alcohol in random places or, even more so, having received a homemade product as a gift, smell it before drinking. If the smell seems too harsh, somehow unusual, do not be too lazy to conduct a home examination to prevent severe poisoning.

Poisoning symptoms and first aid

If methanol was nevertheless used, then this will be evidenced by:

• flickering before the eyes and reduced visibility;
• severe headache and dizziness;
• severe cutting cramps in the stomach;
• nausea and vomiting.

A person can also poorly navigate in space and lose consciousness. In such cases, you need to immediately provide first aid:

1. Call an ambulance and explain that the victim has severe methanol poisoning.
2. It is necessary to give a person a drink with a soda solution. The volume of liquid you drink should not be less than 1500 ml.
3. It is necessary to cleanse the intestines. To do this, first induce vomiting, and then give an enema.

For intoxication and neutralization of methanol, the victim is allowed to drink 50 ml of slightly diluted ethanol every three hours. But do not self-medicate at home. Only a medical institution can assess the degree of poisoning and provide the correct assistance.

Poisoning with ethyl alcohol

You can also get poisoned with ethyl alcohol if you exceed the permissible dose. The amount of alcohol that has entered the bloodstream is measured in ppm (‰) - a conventional unit denoting 1/10 of a percent of alcohol per 1 liter of blood.

First aid for poisoning with ethyl alcohol (hangover)

If a drunk is sick, it is necessary to give him the opportunity to cleanse the stomach properly, while if he is able to drink water, it should be offered in sufficient quantities. The more alcohol the body expels from itself at this stage, the better. It is important to ensure that the person does not choke on drink or vomit. The next morning, after the "victim" sleeps, he will need:

1. On a tablet of acetylsalicylic acid and analgin (or aspirin + citramon) to relieve headaches.
2. Activated carbon, enterosgel or other sorbents.
3. Drinking plenty of water - mineral water, compote, sweet drinks save well, since during "libations" the body loses glucose.
4. If there is a urge to vomit, you can induce it artificially by drinking a glass of clean water before.
5. Refreshing shower, airing the room, taking an easy walk.
6. Chicken broth, soup, some oatmeal, herbs, or a raw egg will kickstart your stomach and help you recover faster.

Heavy physical activity, exposure to contrasting temperatures, heavy food should be avoided and "hangover" should be avoided.

Video: how to check the quality of alcohol at home?

If there are doubts about the alcoholic liquid you are buying, then it is better to do several studies at the same time to determine its quality. Watch a video that uses the Lang method - one of the simple ways that you can check the quality of alcohol at home: