How can moonshine cause blindness?
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Moonshine is made in backyard stills by people that don’t have a great deal of chemistry knowledge. Just a lot of home grown, how-to.
Methanol is the bad alcohol that can cause you to go blind. It boils off when the mixture reaches 148.5’F.
Ethanol is the good alcohol that gets you drunk. It starts boiling off when the mixture reaches 173.1’F.
You need to release the vapors until the mixture is at 173.1, or past, if the vapors are being fed to the condenser since you don’t want the condensed fluid getting mixed with the moonshine and killing you.
“As little as 10 mL of pure methanol when drunk is metabolized into formic acid, which can cause permanent blindness by destruction of the optic nerve. 15 mL is potentially fatal, although the median lethal dose is typically 100 mL (3.4 fl oz) (i.e. 1–2 mL/kg body weight of pure methanol).” — Wikipedia
Moonshine is made in backyard stills by people that don’t have a great deal of chemistry knowledge. Just a lot of home grown, how-to.
Methanol is the bad alcohol that can cause you to go blind. It boils off when the mixture reaches 148.5’F.
Ethanol is the good alcohol that gets you drunk. It starts boiling off when the mixture reaches 173.1’F.
You need to release the vapors until the mixture is at 173.1, or past, if the vapors are being fed to the condenser since you don’t want the condensed fluid getting mixed with the moonshine and killing you.
“As little as 10 mL of pure methanol when drunk is metabolized into formic acid, which can cause permanent blindness by destruction of the optic nerve. 15 mL is potentially fatal, although the median lethal dose is typically 100 mL (3.4 fl oz) (i.e. 1–2 mL/kg body weight of pure methanol).” — Wikipedia
There are two relevant products of fermentation you get out of making moonshine (or any alcohol, for that matter), ethanol and methanol. Ethanol is what gets you drunk, methanol is what gets you blind.
They don’t have quite the same properties as each other so methanol tends to be distilled off first. As a result, when you’re distilling alcohol it’s a good idea to discard the first bit of alcohol since that’ll be higher in methanol content. But the more you discard the less booze you end up with.
So when people are making moonshine, either as a self-made liquor or as a bootleg product sold illegally, they don’t tend to be as … robust about discarding the methanol-rich part of the distillation.
Hence, moonshine causes blindness.
Moonshine is made in backyard stills by people that don’t have a great deal of chemistry knowledge. Just a lot of home grown, how-to.
Methanol is the bad alcohol that can cause you to go blind. It boils off when the mixture reaches 148.5’F.
Ethanol is the good alcohol that gets you drunk. It starts boiling off when the mixture reaches 173.1’F.
You need to release the vapors until the mixture is at 173.1, or past, if the vapors are being fed to the condenser since you don’t want the condensed fluid getting mixed with the moonshine and killing you.
“As little as 10 mL of pure methanol when drunk is metabolized into formic acid, which can cause permanent blindness by destruction of the optic nerve. 15 mL is potentially fatal, although the median lethal dose is typically 100 mL (3.4 fl oz) (i.e. 1–2 mL/kg body weight of pure methanol).” — Wikipedia
When alcohol is created from various carbohydrates, it actually creates various alcohols. One is the one known for drinking: [ethanol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol). The rest is chemically poisonous to humans, such as [methanol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol) (aka wood alcohol or denatured alcohol), which can cause blindness as part of its poisoning.
In a proper set up, these different chemicals can be safely distilled and separated. They have different boiling points, so if the mixture is boiling at a certain temperature then it is safe to assume the distilled chemicals matches that boiling point. But in a moonshine set up, where there’s literally no government oversight enforcing safety inspections, they can be mixed together on accident. Further, if the brewers don’t care about their buyer’s health, they can even allow them to mix together due to greed; the extra volume the methanol would take up is an extra bottle or more of moonshine sold.
the same exact reasons isopropyl alcohol does. Methanol. Take it from me drinking even a 1/4 a cup will cause hours of blindness.
the same exact reasons isopropyl alcohol does. Methanol. Take it from me drinking even a 1/4 a cup will cause hours of blindness.
As had been said, moonshine was made in backyard stills. Sometimes the joints were soldered with ordinary solder containing lead. During prohibition some drinkers actually preferred some methanol in the mix for a stronger, longer, kick. Journal articles last century included first person reports by test subjects. You can’t do that kind of research anymore.
the same exact reasons isopropyl alcohol does. Methanol. Take it from me drinking even a 1/4 a cup will cause hours of blindness.
As had been said, moonshine was made in backyard stills. Sometimes the joints were soldered with ordinary solder containing lead. During prohibition some drinkers actually preferred some methanol in the mix for a stronger, longer, kick. Journal articles last century included first person reports by test subjects. You can’t do that kind of research anymore.
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