Fake Russian alcohol 'kills many'

[Lunar Loops]

This report from the BBC News website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5111762.stm):

Fake Russian alcohol 'kills many'

By Steven Eke
BBC News


Poisoning by counterfeit alcohol kills 42,000 Russians every year, the country's interior minister has said.
Rashid Nurgaliyev said bottles of alcohol on sale in Russian shops often contained poisonous liquids, and called the problem a "national tragedy".
He also said a significant amount of alcohol imported from other parts of the former Soviet Union was faked.
Mr Nurgaliyev has led efforts to crack down on alcoholism in Russia which causes an epidemic of ill-health.
Import ban
Food shops and convenience stores in Russian towns frequently offer a dazzling range of alcoholic drinks, sometimes in very elaborate bottles and packages. But as Russia's interior minister pointed out, what they contain is sometimes not vodka, cognac or wine, but any number of potentially fatal substances.

Speaking in the Russian city of Novgorod, the minister said that bottles of White Stork - a rather cheap but once popular brand of cognac - were still on sale, despite the fact that production of it ended years ago.
Mr Nurgaliyev also repeated the claims heard from the Russian ministry of health, that much, if not most, of the wine from Georgia and Moldova is counterfeit and potentially harmful.
The governments of both those countries are convinced that the Russian ban on their wine, one of their few lucrative exports, is politically motivated, and actually designed to punish them for their pro-Western policies.
Limited progress
Whatever the reality behind that, Russia's problem with alcohol remains serious.
More than 100 people die every day, having poisoned themselves on counterfeit alcoholic drinks.
It is estimated that every third Russian man and every seventh Russian woman, is an alcoholic.
Mr Nurgaliyev has adopted tougher measures to try to deal with the problem, - encouraging, for example, bans on the sale of alcohol at night, or to minors. But progress has been limited, and Russia's love of the bottle continues to fuel some of the world's highest rates of fatal accidents, premature death, violent crime and domestic violence.

[sadskills1987]

i forget if it was sweden or somewhere else, but they had a problem with bootleg liquor being industrial methanol for awhile, that was a tragedy as well. it just goes to show, MAKE IT YOURSELF!!!

[adzket]

yeah a few yrs back some off licences in the uk had bought some vodka that had come off the back of a lorry so to say and it turned out to be mostly anti-freez, a few people died from this and a few more became very ill.

[IHrtHalucingens]

Forgive me for my ignorance, but does Russia not have a regulatory body that tests these products for safety? Or is someone putting this stuff in bottles of known brands and bypassing all safety checks? Kind of interesting that such a problem can exist for so long and not be fixed. Any more info?

[Psych0naut]

Because of very tight rules on alcohol, some of the youth in Sweden make their own liqour which isn't always properly made and sometimes containes methanol.
This ofcourse leads to some serious incidents and deaths once in a while.
The goverment only makes it worse with tighter laws on alcohol.

[IHrtHalucingens]

What kind of very tight laws does Sweden have on alcohol? Is it just hard for them to get it under aged? or something else? im very curious.

[FrankenChrist]

Alcohol is sold only in systembolaget, a state owned chain of liquor stores. Alcohol in Sweden costs an arm and a leg.

[Senor Gribson]

Originally Posted by FrankenChrist

Alcohol is sold only in systembolaget, a state owned chain of liquor stores. Alcohol in Sweden costs an arm and a leg.

sounds just like ontario; alcohol can only be sold in province-owned "LCBO" or "The Beer Store", and LLBO licensed bars. alcohol taxes are through the roof, and our legal drinking age is 19

[Psych0naut]

The minimum age is very high, you have to be 20 to buy alcohol while it's 16 in all West-Europian countries;Holland, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Austria, except for Great Brittain and Ireland where it is 18 and Scandinavia except for Denmark where it is 16 as well.
And the prices are the highest in Europe as well, reason why many Swedish people buy their Alcohol in bulk when they visit other European countries(Germany,Holland)