The Pärnu methanol poisoning incident () was a

methanol poisoning Methanol toxicity (also methanol poisoning) is poisoning from methanol, characteristically via ingestion. Symptoms may include an altered/decreased level of consciousness, poor or no coordination, vomiting, abdominal pain, and a specific smell o ...

incident in

Pärnu county Pärnu County ( or ''Pärnumaa''; ) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is situated in the south-western part of the country, on the coast of Gulf of Riga, and borders Lääne and Rapla counties to the north, Järva and Viljandi counties to ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

in September 2001, caused by consumption of counterfeit

vodka Vodka ( ; is a clear distilled beverage, distilled alcoholic beverage. Its varieties originated in Poland and Russia. Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impurities and flavourings. Traditionally, it is ...

which had mistakenly been made with toxic

methanol Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical compound and the simplest aliphatic Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with the chemical formula (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often ab ...

instead of ordinary

ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...

. It led to the deaths of 68 people, very severe disability (including

blindness Visual or vision impairment (VI or VIP) is the partial or total inability of visual perception. In the absence of treatment such as corrective eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment, visual impairment may cause the individual difficul ...

brain damage Brain injury (BI) is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors. In general, brain damage refers to significant, undiscriminating trauma-induced damage. A common ...

) to 40 people, and severe disability to three people. On the night of 6 September 2001, 10 200-litre canisters of methanol, totalling 1.6

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

s, were stolen from Baltfett (a company processing industrial

fat In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specif ...

ester In chemistry, an ester is a compound derived from an acid (either organic or inorganic) in which the hydrogen atom (H) of at least one acidic hydroxyl group () of that acid is replaced by an organyl group (R). These compounds contain a distin ...

s and

animal feed Animal feed is food given to domestic animals, especially livestock, in the course of animal husbandry. There are two basic types: fodder and forage. Used alone, the word ''feed'' more often refers to fodder. Animal feed is an important input ...

) by Deniss Pletškin, a former employee and Robert Petrov, a current employee, on order of Sergei Maistrišin. To cover up the theft, Petrov later replaced the stolen canisters with empty ones. Maistrišin proceeded to sell the stolen methanol to Aleksandr Sobolev, a known

smuggler Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...

, for 76,000 krooni, claiming that it was technical spirit (''i.e.'', laboratory-grade neutral spirit). Sobolev mixed the liquid with water and

lemon The lemon (''Citrus'' × ''limon'') is a species of small evergreen tree in the ''Citrus'' genus of the flowering plant family Rutaceae. A true lemon is a hybrid of the citron and the bitter orange. Its origins are uncertain, but some ...

flavouring agents at about 30% by volume, bottled the resulting liquid, attached fake labels of various well-known vodka brands, and distributed it through an underground network. Beginning on 9 September, hundreds of people consumed the resulting product and suffered methanol poisoning. Maistrišin was convicted and sentenced to five years of

imprisonment Imprisonment or incarceration is the restraint of a person's liberty for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is considered " false imprisonment". Impri ...

, and Sobolev was sentenced to 2.5 years of imprisonment. Six other accomplices were given brief custodial sentences; about a dozen were sentenced to time served. The unexpectedly lenient sentencing aroused considerable discussion in Estonian public arena, and led to decline in underground alcohol sales.

References

Sources

* Tiiu Põld: ''Eesti kohtueksperdid ja nende lahendatud lood'' (Estonian court experts and their stories resolved) (), Tartu 2008, pages 170–184 {{DEFAULTSORT:Parnu methanol poisoning incident Crime in Estonia 2001 crimes in Estonia Alcohol-related deaths in Estonia Methanol poisoning incidents Pärnu County Counterfeit consumer goods September 2001 in Europe