Thousands of Tampered Vodka Bottles are Found Before New Year’s Eve

The day before New Year’s Eve, thousands of tampered vodka bottles have been discovered in Britain. Several British citizens suffered seizures in the past few weeks due to these tampered vodka bottles. What was the cause of this sudden outbreak of seizures? Isopropanol, was the problem. Authorities found that the clear liquid was replaced with large amounts of isopropanol, an ingredient found in antifreeze, alcohol swabs, cleaning supplies, paint thinners, perfumes, and rubbing alcohol. Isopropanol is a colorless, flammable liquid. It has characteristics of an alcoholic odor, which explains why no one recognized that the bottles were replaced with this ingredient.

What happens when isopropanol is ingested? Along with the massive amount of seizures that have been happening, symptoms of ingesting isopropanol include:

Abdominal pain
Coma or decreased level of consciousness and lack of responsiveness
Dizziness
Headache
Low body temperature
Low blood pressure
Low blood sugar
Nausea
Rapid heart rate
Skin redness and pain
Slowed breathing
Slurred speech
Throat pain
Uncoordinated movement
Unconsciousness
Unresponsive reflexes
Urination problems, either too much or too little urine
Vomiting and also vomit that may contain blood

As you can see it is very dangerous to consume this type of alcohol. So why did someone decide to add this into factory labeled bottles and sell it? This remains under investigation. As everyone gears up for New Year’s Eve, people that do not usually buy alcohol are out purchasing all kinds of alcohol for their New Year’s Eve parties. Consumers and retailers are being encouraged to keep an eye out for suspicious items with broken seals and duty-free stickers. There are a few signs to help spot a bootleg version of alcohol besides a broken seal, look for misspellings on the labels. Most counterfeit criminals do not use spell check, so look for misspellings like “botteled” and “top qualty vodker”.

A raid was done on an illegal factory called Derbyshire. The raid revealed 20,000 empty bottles and on top of that, they found empty cans of antifreeze. Although they found one of the factories, many of these bootleg bottles are already on the shelves in stores. They are disguised as popular brands like Smirnoff, Glen’s, and Kommissar. Around 166 bottles were pulled off the shelves of shops across towns, 30 miles outside of London.

Drinking isopropanol will most likely make you very intoxicated, but it is very dangerous. Drinking large amounts of this product can cause serious damage including:

Coma
Brain damage
Bleeding
Breathing difficulty
Kidney failure

You should seek medical attention right away if you consume this product or feel that you may have consumed this type of alcohol. With New Year’s Eve upon us, make sure you are cautious with the types of drinks you are serving and consuming. If anything, try a new dry drink menu. This is sparking interest across many states. Create non alcoholic drinks that are made with similar ingredients that alcoholic drinks have. You might find that people enjoy those more.

http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/12/30/antifreeze-vodka-bottles-united-kingdom