September 14, 2012
Summary
The Czech Republic announced a state of emergency on Wednesday following a series of deaths and serious injuries from illegal toxic alcohol made from industrial chemical: methanol.
Methanol is highly toxic to humans. It is, with even a small amount in its pure form, capable of causing blindness or death.
Methanol is mainly used for industrial purposes. However, since it is cheap and impossible to distinguish from real drinking alcohol, criminals sometimes stretch black market alcohol with it to guarantee high profits.
As of Thursday afternoon the death toll from drinking illegal alcohol, laced with methanol, had risen to 18.
The number of people in critical condition after drinking the poisonous methanol has risen by five since Wednesday to 24 cases; some of them have been blinded, while others have been induced into comas in the hope that doctors can save them. Some others are suffering from less serious problems.
Authorities still fear the death toll will rise.
Such a large number of deaths is rare and thus extraordinary measures were adopted to tackle the epidemic of methanol poisoning.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas urged people to abstain from taking alcohol of unknown origin.
The Health Ministry is recommending that the public refrain from drinking distilled beverages with alcohol content of 30% or higher.
Czech authorities began enforcing a temporary ban on hard liquor sales at kiosks, open-air markets and mobile liquor stores and police have launched a check across the country. It is still not sure what amount of the hazardous alcohol has been spread on the market. The source of the poisonous alcohol hasn't been found yet but local police and fire fighters, equipped to deal with toxic materials, have checked out 5,000 samples of suspicious alcohol, more than half of which contained dangerous levels of methanol.
European dimension of the problem
Czech food inspectors have identified and closed two shops selling the tainted alcohol. Both closed shops are in the east of the Czech Republic near Slovakia and Poland, stoking concerns about possible cross-border sales.
Slovak and Polish authorities have been on the lookout for the possible spread of the toxic illegal alcohol outside the Czech Republic.
Apart from the Czech victims of methanol, two people recently died after the consumption of alcohol of unknown origin in the eastern Polish town of Kielce.
So far any signs of poisonous alcohol being transported across the country's borders haven't been uncovered.
Endangered are also tourists who often visit the Czech Republic because of the low alcohol prices.
The situation has also a strong social aspect as buying illegal alcohol is closely connected to the economic downturn. The Moravian-Silesian region has unemployment about 50 percent higher than the national average of 8.3 percent. People with the lowest income are looking for the cheapest alcohol and are ready to accept unknown origins.
Conclusion/Request:
Given the critical situation I would like to ask for a short exchange of views with the European Commission during the next week's ENVI Committee meeting.
Besides the tragic consequences related to all the victims, the entire issue has also a socially- political dimension. Part of the population of the Czech Republic, and this is very typical for a structurally affected regions, has a strong feeling of alienation and being abandoned by their own national government. Therefore it is extremely important that the European Parliament will deal with the matter at least by the above mentioned form.
Another aspect, which is not marginal at all, is that similar cases of such enrichment at the expense of human lives can repeat again in EU regions strongly affected by the current economic crisis or its effects, and only a decisive action with the support from the European level has a chance to prevent them. Food safety, not food quality, is an EU competence, and none of the EU institutions can resign or lower down such competence, as it happened in the case of different quality levels of branded foods in the "old" and "new" EU Member States. If the European Parliament did not pay adequate attention to this issue it would be a rather devastating signal.
I hope you can support this request.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Pavel Poc, MEP
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