Methanol eyed in gin deaths

Gin mixed with methanol, commonly known as wood alcohol, or in street parlance, "gin bulag" — a clear, colorless, flammable and poisonous type of alcohol — could have killed eight men in Malabon last month.

This was revealed yesterday by Northern Police District Office crime lab chief Senior Inspector Rio Gatacilo even as he denied issuing a report that the killer gin taken by the victims at a sidestreet drinking session last May 18 and June 1 had been "negative for poison."

Scene of the Crime Operations (SOCO) medico-legal officer Senior Inspector Filemon Porciuncula, who conducted an autopsy on the body of the first casualty, Gomer Corre, 54, said the cause of death was "cardio-respiratory arrest secondary to ingestion of methanol, a poisonous substance."

A chemical laboratory test was later made by SOCO chemist Inspector Albert Arturo from blood samples, tissues from the liver and gall bladder and stomach contents of Corre, who died hours after the drinking session. Arturo said it took a while for him to come out with the findings as he wanted to be very sure.

The chemist said he referred his initial findings to experts of local and transnational industrial and drug and chemical firms before coming out with the official report.

Porciuncula said that when he autopsied the other victims, no toxicological and histopath examinations could be made on them since they have already been embalmed with formalin when the SOCO was called in.

One of the victims, Arman Cutura of Potrero, Malabon, had gone blind from the same "poison-laced gin."

One person each from the two affected groups survived, apparently taking in the least amounts compared to the others.

Police still have no suspects in the case but sources believe the deaths could be part of an attempt to destroy the reputation of a local gin brand.

According to chemists, methanol is formed in the destructive distillation (removal of natural qualities) of wood. Also called denatured alcohol, methanol is used as a solvent, anti-freeze or denaturant for ethyl alcohol, the drinker-friendly alcohol.

Ethyl alcohol is the non-toxic but intoxicating agent present in fermented and distilled liquors like whiskey and gin.