methylated spirits

, also known as denatured alcohol, is a mixture of ethanol with chemicals designed to discourage people from drinking it, such as the toxic methanol (or “methyl alcohol,” which gives the compound its name) and the extremely bitter denatonium benzoate. In most countries, alcohol produced for human consumption is taxed at a higher rate than methylated spirits, which are intended for industrial uses.

During Prohibition in the United States, all alcohol produced for industrial purposes was required to be mixed with methanol, which led to many cases of mass poisonings when bootleggers sold industrial alcohol for illicit consumption; in New York City, denatured alcohol consumption killed more than thirty people during the 1926 Christmas season alone. Today, formulas for denatured alcohol supplement the poisons with bitter or otherwise unpalatable and offensive-smelling chemicals and coloring agents in addition to poisons to prevent this.There are numerous folk methods for purifying methylated spirits so that they may be drunk, such as filtering it through bread, commonly used by desperate drinkers in the old Soviet Union. These are always risky and rarely completely effective.

See also Prohibition and Temperance in America.

Blum, Deborah. “The Chemist’s War.” Slate, February 19, 2010. http://www.slate.com/articles/healthandscience/medicalexaminer/2010/02/thechemistswar.html (accessed February 19, 2021).

By: Jason HornSee also Prohibition, Temperance in America.