When bootleg alcohol killed 17 people in Hong Kong in 1975, and two men were imprisoned for supplying adulterated Chinese wine
- When Chinese wine was adulterated with poisonous methyl alcohol, people started dying, but it took a few deaths before Hong Kong authorities became aware of it
- A crackdown on wine shops followed, and two men were arrested, tried for three of the deaths and sentenced to five and seven years in prison
“The death toll from alcoholic poisoning rose to 10 yesterday and the Preventive Service said faster action could have been taken if information had been received earlier from the [Hong Kong] Government Chemist,” reported the South China Morning Post on October 11, 1975.
“The Preventive Service told a press conference that four more people had died from the effects of drinking adulterated Chinese wine,” its report added.
The next day, the Post reported that “delicate laboratory tests lasting up to a month were needed to identify the exact poisons believed to have killed 10 people who drank adulterated liquor.
“The Government Chemist, Dr R. Edgley, said yesterday the basic steps taken to identify a poison were simple – if chemists knew what they were looking for. But until staff at the Government Chemist’s laboratory detected four deaths in four weeks connected with methyl alcohol, there had been no suggestion that bootleg wine was linked with any of them.”
Its report continued: “As soon as the number of deaths linked to methyl alcohol became known, the Government Chemist’s office began checking every blood sample from every corpse for the presence of the deadly chemical, often used to adulterate Chinese wines […]
“Many cases of death or blindness have been caused by people drinking mixtures which contain the substance.”