This study reports the results from the Alcohol Measures for Public Health Research Alliance (AMPHORA) project, which assessed the quality of unrecorded alcohol in a Europe-wide study.
Samples of unrecorded alcohol were collected in 16 European
countries and chemically analyzed for potentially health-relevant
parameters. Thresholds for parameters were defined based on potential health hazards of daily drinking.
The average alcoholic strength of unrecorded wine products was 14.9% vol, and 47.8% vol in unrecorded spirits. One half of the
samples (n=57) showed acceptable alcohol quality. The other half
(n=58) showed one or several deficits with the most prevalent problem being ethyl carbamate contamination (n=29). Other problems included copper (n=20), manganese (n=16) and acetaldehyde (n=12). All other parameters (including methanol, higher alcohols, phthalates) were onlyseldom problematic (limit exceedance in less than 10 samples). The price of unrecorded alcohol was approximately 45% of the price of recorded alcohol.
The major problem regarding unrecorded alcohol appears
to be ethanol itself, as it is often higher in strength and its lower price
may further contribute to higher drinking amounts. Compared to the
health effects of ethanol, the contamination problems detected may be of minor importance as exposure will only in worst-case scenarios reach tolerable daily intakes of these substances.
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