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I once decided to make a trip to the pharmacy in the hope of getting a couple of bottles of medical alcohol, after one bottle was given to me by an old friend. His mother is a nurse.
So, I came to the pharmacy: “Give me, please, medical alcohol!”. “No, it’s not for sale that easy, keep Aseptolin!”, The pharmacist answered me. This “alcohol”, as I later found out, is just as dangerous to drink as technical alcohol.
So, we know that there is technical alcohol – you can’t drink it, you can eat food – you can drink, but there is medical! In many films and stories, medical alcohol was considered superior to vodka among doctors and their patients.
“And you and I drink alcohol now – clean! Wow, medical! – “White Arrow” series.
Let’s generally understand how technical alcohol differs from medical alcohol.
Composition differences
I didn’t even think about the composition: С2Н5ОН, they say, there is only one formula. No, I completely forgot that medical alcohol should not contain impurities such as methanol that are dangerous to life and health. The paradox is this:
You can also treat the wound with alcohol with some impurities, this is not critical. Or wipe the skin for an injection. However, medical alcohol is also used for oral administration in some cases!
Medical tinctures, for example, are made with alcohol (hello, famous hawthorn!). Believe it or not, some injectables also contain ethyl alcohol.
Judging by the photos, it is still for sale.
It turns out that medical alcohol, just like food, should not contain dangerous impurities, and there is an appropriate state standard for it.
A technical “companion” may contain both methanol and some kind of isopropyl, on which you cannot make the drug and you cannot take it inside. In medicine, alcohol and isopropyl alcohol are used. They can treat wounds, but in no case should you drink.
Sorry for the small picture, but this is what medical isopropyl alcohol looks like. Or rather, its packaging:
That (ethyl) medical, that food alcohol are derivatives of ethane, from a chemical point of view. Just a medical undergoes a series of additional cleanings. The technical one is a bunch of all sorts of rubbish, which includes other alcohols and other bad substances. Suitable only for cleaning parts.
Differences in production methods
Medical ethyl alcohol is mined in much the same way as alcohol for vodka. It is supplied in concentrations of 96%, 95% and 70%. Produced by fermentation, just then filtered very, very carefully, and then diluted.
Photo from the presentation on the topic “Production of technical ethyl alcohol”
Isopropyl rubbing alcohol is made by mixing sulfuric acid and propylene, and then it’s all diluted with water and seriously heated – this is how this strange product is obtained. In fact – the chemistry of organic synthesis in its purest form.
Medical alcohol is made in exactly the same way as food alcohol, only it undergoes a more thorough filtration.
Technical alcohol – “this is different, you need to understand!”. It is mainly made by distillation of oil, hydrolysis of cellulose, wood, or from residues from the manufacture of food ethanol.
In short, have you heard such a thing that the first glass after the distillation of the mash must be drained? Here, it’s pretty much the same thing.
There is also the so-called modern medical alcohol – Aseptolin. Antiseptics are swelled there as additional components. The dispute has been going on for a long time: some say that you can drink it, others deny it. In fact, you should never drink it.
Is it possible to drink industrial alcohol
Adequate people – absolutely not. It was from him that a huge number of our fellow citizens were poisoned in the late 80s, in the 90s, and even stories about these “brave pilots” still appear.
Who is blind, who is even worse. This is the same alcohol in cans, barrels and plastic bottles. Methyl alcohol, even in small quantities, is very toxic, even if it is present in technical “ethanol” in a small percentage.
Those alcohols that are made by distilling oil (yes, this is the opera when gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil comes out) – this is a hellish mixture of almost the entire table of Dmitry Ivanych.
Retail sale of methanol in Russia is prohibited.
You can’t drink isopropyl alcohol either – whether it’s technical or medical, poisoning will be ensured. People manage to get poisoned with food alcohol, but here it is technical.
How to distinguish technical alcohol from medical
As well as good food. Medical ethyl alcohol has a perfectly transparent color and a characteristic smell. There are no dyes, no flakes, no fibers. Well, of course, if the doctor or nurse does not wet the cotton wool, with which the motes will fall into the vial.
Methyl alcohol from ethyl alcohol (medical or food) cannot be distinguished by eye at all! No smell, no color, no taste!
Technical alcohol is a liquid, often of an incomprehensible color, sometimes yellowish, greenish. It can smell like gasoline or kerosene, it can also give off a solvent. It may not differ in any way – in smell, like alcohol, and in color, like water.
If sowing liquid is poured into a canister, into a plastic bottle (albeit without a label), it is better not to drink. The plastic cap on the glass bottle should also alert, if the label has disappeared somewhere.
True, in many Asian countries, vodka is sold in plastic bottles, and often it looks like a solvent. There is no need to be afraid anymore.
Did you come to North Korea? Have you seen this vodka? Drink boldly, it will be 100% quality, “poison” is excluded. For a “palenka” in this country they will simply be shot, and business is something …
Now I’m interested in “listening” to your stories about some of your acquaintances who in the “old time” nevertheless used some strange alcohol. I didn’t fully understand about ethyl medical alcohol (not Aseptolin) – is it sold in pharmacies only to doctors, or what, now?