Health Ministry to check opened liquor bottles

Prague, Oct 1 (CTK) - Sanitary inspectors will in the future focus on taking and testing samples from opened liquor bottles in the Czech Republic in reaction to the recent series of methanol poisonings from bootleg alcohol, Health Minister Leos Heger (TOP 09) told reporters yesterday.

He convoked a meeting of the regional sanitary officers on Tuesday to specify the methods of further checks.

"We will mainly put emphasis on the control of opened bottles on suspicion that they are often filled from illegal sources," Heger said.

Inspectors will primarily test the content of denatured alcohol in spirits as it indicates that they have been illegally produced.

Sanitary officers carried out 1207 checks, mainly in restaurants, at the long Friday-Sunday weekend and they revealed 20 shortcomings, in most cases in the documentation of the alcohol bottles for sale. They imposed fines on the distributors, Heger said.

The poisonous liquor has claimed 27 lives so far and over 70 have been hospitalised with methanol poisoning symptoms in the country. The 27th death was confirmed yesterday.

Ten people are currently in hospital with methanol poisoning. Five of them were hospitalised at the weekend, Heger noted.

The Health Ministry banned the sale of spirits containing more than 20 percent of alcohol across the country on September 14 in reaction to a high number of methanol poisoning cases.

Moreover, the government imposed an immediate ban on all exports of spirits with over 20 percent of alcohol under the pressure of the EU that intended to ban liquor imports from the Czech Republic for up to two months.

The prohibition was softened last Thursday. Restaurants and shops can now sell spirits made by the end of last year freely.

As far as the liquor produced this year is concerned, retailers must get a certificate of the alcohol's origin within 60 days. Otherwise these bottles must be disposed of.

The recent checks of sanitary officers, the retail and food inspections and firefighters have proved that the amount of illegal and poisonous liquor in the (retail) network is decreasing, Heger said.

The Czech Republic has enough doses of fomepizole medicine that is administered as an antidote in the case of methanol poisoning, Heger said, adding that hospitals have now 61 packagings, which would suffice for up to seven severe poisoning cases.

The emergency committee that has been meeting daily so far will meet again in a week. It should coordinate the legislative proposals to protect citizens from bootleg alcohol.