[Accidental methyl alcohol poisoning].

An accidental poisoning due to drinking methyl alcohol in Chaoyang county is reported, analysing the accident. The poison came from the "retail white spirit" which was contaminated with methyl alcohol. Twenty-nine persons drank the wine, fourteen of them died, two of them became blind. After drinking this "retail white spirit" the drinkers showed symptoms of vertigo, headache, weakness, vomiting, night sweat, dyspnea and blurring of vision etc. within 6-120 hours. On examining the remaining spirit, we found the content of methyl alcohol to be between 16.6 and 40.69 g/100 ml. Some of the patients' urine and blood also contained methyl alcohol. We reckoned that each one of the twenty patients had taken more than 27 g of methyl alcohol and each of the ten dead drank more than 40 ml of the alcohol.