Turkey’s most comprehensive alcoholic beverage analysis laboratory, which has the Turkish Accreditation Agency (TURKAK) certificate, is located within Çukurova University in Adana. Samples sent by judicial authorities from all over Turkey are examined in the laboratory.
Laboratory Manager and also Çukurova University Food Engineering Department Lecturer Prof. Dr. Turgut Cabaroğlu pointed out that the production of fake alcoholic beverages has increased and stated that if fake alcohol is mixed with or produced from methyl alcohol, it threatens human health and causes deaths.
“METHYL ALCOHOL IS POISON AND IT KILLS”
Prof. Dr. Turgut Cabaroğlu emphasized that methyl alcohol poisoning will never occur in a legal production and that the poisoning situation occurs entirely due to the problems caused by the production of fake alcohol, and said: “The raw materials used in the production of fake alcohol are normally ethyl alcohol. But if you buy it from the market and from unconscious people, is it ethyl alcohol? methyl alcohol? You cannot know this.
“YOU CANNOT DIFFERENTIATE BY EYE OR SMELL”
When you look at it in terms of appearance, you cannot distinguish it by sight or smell. You can only distinguish it when it enters the laboratory or if the labeling information is correct. When you use methyl alcohol instead of alcohol, it will kill you. Methyl alcohol is poison and kills. The safe daily dose of methyl alcohol is 2 grams. 8 grams in toxic dose. “If the fake drink is produced from methyl alcohol, death can occur in a very short time even if one glass is consumed,” he said.
“95 PERCENT OF THE SAMPLES FROM COURT AUTHORITIES ARE FAKE ALCOHOL BEVERAGE”
Stating that they evaluated the samples coming from the judicial authorities in the laboratory within the university, Cabaroğlu said, “When we evaluated only the samples that came from the judicial authorities with suspicion of being fake, we determined that approximately 95 percent of them were fake. When we look at it, we see that the main source of fake production is cosmetic alcohol. Cosmetic alcohol comes first. Secondly, we found that ethyl alcohol-based disinfectants, which are used as disinfectants, are used in this illegal sector.
There is an informality floating around in the cosmetic alcohol industry. And alcohols from this cosmetic alcohol industry are processed into counterfeit products. Original bottles consumed in the market are collected back from restaurants, bars and nightclubs by paying a certain fee to the waiters. “And these original bottles are filled and put on the market by counterfeiters,” he said.
“IT CAN BE COMPLETED WITH A PROCESS THAT LASTS TO DEATH”
Prof. Dr. Turgut Cabaroğlu warned citizens against the consumption of fake alcohol and said, “The first symptoms of consuming fake alcohol are dizziness, headache, as well as nausea and vomiting, these are preliminary symptoms. In later stages, it can be completed with a process that we call pupil dilation, blurred and blindness in vision, inability to see, and in more advanced stages, a state of coma, which eventually leads to death. “There is an urgent need for an intervention under the supervision of a physician,” he said.
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