Where to buy: Methyl Alcohol

[sinikala]

That was a bit retarded as the ethanol used in most labs will have trace concentrations of benzene

Considering the advertised application of Etax for example (food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries), I find that bit unlikely. Distillation with benzene is the classical production method but I don't think it is the method of choice any more.
http://www.bibendum.fi/altia/altiacorp. ... ntent6E06D

I have no idea how Alko / Altia remove water from their ethanol, but considering the name of the poster (Avinash Singh), it's unlikely he was drinking Etax down in the Indian sub-continent.

Normally it´s not an issue as the stuff used in labs isn´t intended for human consumption, is it?

Ever worked in a lab...? (not that ethanol would not in my experience be more stringently monitored than many actually far more dangerous chemicals)

If you are referring to the habit of the locals (e.g. in TKK) of keeping a few bottles of Etax aside for use in the Christmas punch, it's not something we would have done at my University in England (even with analytical grade) nor in the labs of the Finnish company I work for today.

Finland, Norway, Sweden with their state Alcohol monopolies are a bit different to the other 99.5 % of the world that buy their GPR / AnalaR ethanol on the open market, e.g. from Aldrich or VWR.

If the product is not intended for human consumption, there is no obligation for the manufacturer to take care that there's no trace nasties in there. A lot of the raw materials we buy today are sourced from India and China, and even products from those countries which are intended for consumption are often contaminated (Sudan red, melamine anybody?) it would not surprise me if some ethanol supplies are tainted by toxic impurities from the old distillation practice. I prefer not to take the risk.

[Rip]

Ok, fair enough on all points. (except that I'm wondering if the trace components would be the main health hazard of regular (or occasional) use of lab alcohol. Benzene is not good for you, but it did not kill people like flies even when its dangers were not understood (ethanol, on the other hand, kills quite a many in this country)

A lot of the raw materials we buy today are sourced from India and China, and even products from those countries which are intended for consumption are often contaminated (Sudan red, melamine anybody?) it would not surprise me if some ethanol supplies are tainted by toxic impurities from the old distillation practice. I prefer not to take the risk.

ETAX might be safer then than some other alcohol products that are actually sold for human consumption. Food that is of at least partly Chinese origin is starting to be rather difficult to avoid. I was surprised when I lately read in a package of frozen fish that had been caught on North Atlantic that the packing had been done in China. I would have thought that the logistics of that would not make economical sense, but obviously I was wrong.

[Londonchris]

Best stick to the alko shop if you want to get blitzed, don`t risk messing around with things made for other purposes even if they do the same job.

[Pursuivant]

There was canned coffee drink at the R-kioski... from TAIWAN

[sinikala]

Ok, fair enough on all points. (except that I'm wondering if the trace components would be the main health hazard of regular (or occasional) use of lab alcohol. Benzene is not good for you, but it did not kill people like flies even when its dangers were not understood (ethanol, on the other hand, kills quite a many in this country).

Benzene is a carcinogen, with high risks for long term exposure even to trace concentrations.

http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/ET/ethyl_alcohol.html
http://msds.chem.ox.ac.uk/BE/benzene.html

Incidentally, on safety in the lab in Finland; there is no equivalent of a COSHH asessment required before starting work. Ironic when you consider that the EU´s ECHA is located in Helsinki. If Finnish students were better trained in chemical safety, they might not drink laboratory reagents with such glee.

ETAX might be safer then than some other alcohol products that are actually sold for human consumption..

And then again, it might not. And they don´t have to tell us, because it isn´t made for drinking.

Food that is of at least partly Chinese origin is starting to be rather difficult to avoid. I was surprised when I lately read in a package of frozen fish that had been caught on North Atlantic that the packing had been done in China. I would have thought that the logistics of that would not make economical sense, but obviously I was wrong.

Yes, it´s a matter of economics, I remember an article on the BBC website a couple of years ago

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scot ... 150240.stm

[Rip]

If Finnish students were better trained in chemical safety, they might not drink laboratory reagents with such glee.

There would be room for improved safety but I doubt that would change much. Student's drink alcohol from more suspicious sources than that. The actual drinking deaths though that happened close enough that I've heard about the details were due to ethanol alone (not even methanol). As for actual lab work, chemicals that obviously were more dangerous than slightly impure ethanol were handled with even less amount of care.