It is difficult to separate fact from fiction from fear, trying to understand the relationship between Mexican Mexican agave and methanol poisoning, which leads to blindness or death as the worst-case scenario. A purely physical scientific interpretation greatly exceeds my level of understanding. At the other end of the spectrum, one can find literature without references confirming statements and statements regarding the likelihood of a hangover, headaches and much more serious adverse effects; all this is hidden in words and phrases like “only”, “probably” and “possible”. And he ignores aspartame.
Introduction
Is it appropriate to equate the mezcal, which was produced almost safely and without incident by families in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca for several generations, with American moonshine, with deaths due to deliberate falsification of the spirit over a pure profit motive, with fabrications created by naive youth, or with reports from third world countries where ignorance of safe alcohol production leads to imprudent means of producing or using equipment that pollutes? Panicists are supposed to extract their data from such sources.
For the past 25 years, I drank the mezkal, sold in small, family-owned and operated handicraft factories (palenka, as they are known in Oaxaca), without incident. And so my friends and companions of Oahakans, hundreds of thousands of residents who patronized their producers (or palenqueros), and recently visited Oaxaca to try and take home what they can't find in their local bars or retail sources. sockets.
Otherwise, all I have to rely on is my cursory review of online literature (including but not limited to the International Center for Alcohol Policies, UPI, Methanol Institute, National Institutes of Health / US National Library of Medicine, World Health Organization, the list of references is available upon written request), and my experience in social anthropology. It was my Darwinian academic background, which led me to an Internet search, so that I could prove what I consider to be a reasonable hypothesis, and put in sight the tales I read. Regarding the latter, I read that metskal, not certified by a regulatory agency, is fake, illegal, leads to a hangover and can even lead to blindness or death from methanol poisoning. Imbibam Agave spirits have been very lucky all these years, decades and maybe even millennia?
Two lines of thought about the origin of distillation in Mexico are that indigenous groups learned to distill long before the arrival of the Spaniards or that the Spanish studied distillation from the Moors and thus brought this knowledge to them in the first half of the 16th century. The former theory gives more confidence to my thought process, although 450 years of trials and mistakes and the improvement of safe distillation are nothing sneezes.
Just as the early natives of Zapoteko from Oaxaca learned to paint with cochineal insects and, presumably, through trial and error that mineral alum served as the best available Mordant or fixative, it is assumed that there were also invaders and indigenous people in Mexico who learn how to safely distill. Following the same analogy, it is likely that the wool has long been dyed red and the cochineal has disappeared from the Sun or through washing until the best available mordent has been found; and therefore, perhaps starting from hundreds of years, indeed, the local Mexicans (and Spanish) succumbed to unreasonable methods of distillation. They learned to use alum; and removal of methanol and using predominantly clay or copper or other “safe” metal compounds during and for distillation, respectively.
Methanol explained
Even the healthiest among us, including those who do not absorb alcohol, have methanol in their bodies. People get it in small quantities from eating fruits and vegetables. It is not only absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract, but also through the skin and by inhalation. Methanol is metabolized in the liver, first converted to formaldehyde, and then formed (formic acid). As a building block for many biological molecules, formate is necessary for our survival. On the other hand, high levels of formate formation after excessive consumption of methanol can cause severe toxicity. An EPA estimate reported that methanol is considered a cumulative poison due to the low rate of excretion after its absorption.
The main uses of methanol are intended for industrial and automotive purposes. It is found in antifreeze, canned sources of heat, copying fluids, anti-icing fluids, fuel additives, paint removers or thinner, shellac, varnish, wiper fluid, etc. This is known as denatured alcohol. Government regulations actually dictate the inclusion of high levels of methanol as a compound in such products, knowing its toxicity and wanting to ensure that the public buys its liquor (in which methanol levels are controlled, unlike other alcohols), in order to maintain healthy tax revenues.
But the government dictates it does not prevent the use of denatured alcohol or it is used to strengthen other beverages. In fact, in the literature on non-commercial alcohol, which is sometimes referred to as unrecorded alcohol, these “substitutes” or non-edible spirits are cited as one of the three categories of drinks that potentially pose a health risk. They drink alone (i.e., classic clips) and are used as “cocktails” when they are added, for example, to fruit juices. The other two are “counterfeit” products and illegal mass drinks, as well as traditional drinks produced for home consumption or limited local trade (legal or illegal). It is assumed that the artisanal mezkal falls into the second part of this third category. So yes, there is the likelihood of health problems arising from the fact that consumers absorb Mexican mekkal with higher than "safe" levels of methanol.
The health hazards of the spirit in Mexico and internationally
In central Mexico, as in the literature, much more than anything else, a particular health problem associated with meccal and other traditional alcohol consumption is alcoholism, leading to cirrhosis of the liver.
In an article on global outbreaks of methanol poisoning, the World Health Organization provided examples of counterfeit, counterfeit and informally grown spirits in Cambodia, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Libya, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Turkey and Uganda. Mexico is clearly missing from the list.
In an article on quantifying selected volatile components in Mexican alcohols, sotol, bacanor, tequila and mescal, while methanol was the most problematic compound, and from time to time the samples were much higher than the levels recommended by international as well as national standards, especially It is important to note two points: the level of methanol has no toxicological significance; and, as has been found, other legally obtained beverages, such as German fruit alcohols, have significantly higher levels of methanol.
In an article entitled “Non-Profit Alcohol: Understanding the Informal Market”, the International Center for Alcohol Policies reported that much of the perceived health risk is associated with such forms of alcohol use as chronic consumption and alcohol use, the use of poor quality ingredients, production or storage time. In Russia and other republics of the former Soviet Union, samagon is cheap and easy to make using household appliances. The poor population of Kenya is strengthening its grain spirit, chang aa, with surrogates. The national national drink from cocoa or ping is sometimes strengthened using industrial spirits, some of which have been noted above.
What about the famous moonshine in the United States, usually a high level of alcohol content, usually used with mashed corn as the main ingredient? Poorly made moonshine is contaminated mainly from materials used in construction, such as using automobile radiators as condensers (glycol from antifreeze or lead from compounds). In addition, methanol is added to the alcohol to increase strength and improve profits.
In 1994, it was reported poisoning from taking Mexale produced in the Mexican state of Morelos, citing the fact that alcohol was clogged with methanol. It is assumed that this was an aberration, although, of course, remarkable. It is somewhat surprising that there were relatively few incidents with respect to incidents, and, as far as I know, they did not attract attention in the broader English literature on methanol poisoning.
As suggested, methanol is not the only potentially dangerous component. Lead, as well as other toxic metals, can poison not only through the use of inappropriate distillation equipment, but also through the use of a source of polluted water. Volatile compounds, such as acetaldehyde or higher alcohols, can be obtained in significant quantities due to guilt in manufacturing technology or microbiological damage. There have been cases of the appearance of certain fruit and sugar canes containing the carcinogen urethane.
When is methanol safe?
Returning to methanol, one must now ask what is the safe maximum level of its ingestion. Only in 1981, sugar substitute aspartame was approved for dry goods, and two years later for carbonated beverages. It consists of three chemicals: aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol, which is a whopping 10% of its composition. The absorption of methanol in the body is accelerated when ingested "free methanol", and this form of the chemical is created from aspartame when it is heated to temperatures above 86 degrees Fahrenheit (i.e., when cooking without sugar jelly). In 1993, the FDA approved aspartame as an ingredient in numerous foods that would normally heat above this temperature.
The EPA recommends a daily consumption of no more than 7.8 g of methanol. While the amount of aspartame in the diet of soda can vary, it was reported that one can produce 20 mg of methanol in the body. It is not surprising that aspartame accounts for more than 75% of adverse reactions to food additives reported by the FDA. Chronic diseases can be caused or worsened by swallowing aspartame. Many alarms are reported.
The current regulation of the maximum amount of methanol in mescal is 3 grams per 100 ml. This is an arbitrary standard. Ask how many meccals to swallow to reach the maximum EPA limit of methanol of 7.8 grams per day. The FDA states that up to 5 grams per day of methanol is safe in the adult diet. Should the Mexican standard be higher or lower?
It is not surprising that a previous study identifying volatile components in Mexican alcohols did not reveal toxicological significance for the analysis of samples significantly exceeding the recommended levels. In addition, unlike household foods and drinks containing aspartame, ethanol (i.e. meccal) serves as an antidote to the toxicity of methanol in humans.
Conclusion
There is indeed confusion in the literature regarding recommended maximum levels of methanol and at what level is the health risk, including for Mexican alcoholic beverages, and where they are marked only tangentially or not at all. However, there is also a significant sequence:
1. There is a paucity of reliable research and final literature, largely due to the fact that the statistics on non-commercial spirits do not exist essentially for various reasons (that is, they are not recorded, because there are no exact government or other reliable quantitative indicators);
2. There is no cooperation between local authorities, NGOs and international experts;
3. Methanol poisoning is relatively rare in those cases when traditional, safe distillation processes are practiced, which are transmitted through the generations (i.e., throughout the territory of Mexico, the current operations of the moonshine of the United States, etc., subject to the above, above) ;
4. There are many other reasons why there are health risks associated with both legal and illegal alcohol production;
5. It is disturbing that strict government control stimulates the consumption of non-commercial or unofficially sold alcoholic beverages and increases the damage;
6. The high quality of artisanal non-commercial traditional alcohol is for the most part safe, both with the exception and regardless of the amount of methanol;
7. They often represent an extremely important part of the local culture, often with ceremonial significance (i.e. consumed in a variety of rite events) and provide a source of national pride.
In addition to my proposal by Darwin that the days of hazardous production in Mexico are long gone, and, recognizing the problem of construction yet, it should be noted that almost all the artisanal factories in Oaxaca consist either of copper alembic or of similar production equipment made in equally standardized and carefully controlled workshops and factories; or in clay pots. In both cases, they practically do not contain harmful levels of chemical compounds.
If there is a lesson to learn, it may not be possible to drink artisanal, commercial or other, while consuming government approved products containing aspartame.
