00:01Australians may be buying and consuming contaminated spirits from the shelves of
00:06their local bottle shop a study published today has found that 30 percent of the 200 bottle shops
00:12researchers visited in Victoria New South Wales and Queensland were selling alcohol that contains
00:18suspected illicit products it's tell us more is dr. Nick Taylor from the National Drug Research
00:23Institute at Curtin University hi there Nick good to see so can you tell us how you carried
00:29out your research first of all you started with a small sample size didn't you yeah so this today's
00:37results from our chemical analyses are just from a really small sample of three bottle shops that we
00:46went to and found illicit product in so there are only three illicit samples that we've been able to
00:52examine to date but we have gone to over 200 bottle shops and found illicit suspected illicit products
00:59in 30 percent of them so what stage is that expanded research at has that been peer-reviewed is that
01:05you know officially ready to so the expanded audit is we're still crunching numbers on that we're still
01:11writing that up but the chemical analysis is has been peer-reviewed and verified and is available for
01:18anyone to read it's publicly accessible okay so what did you find then when you widen the scope to 200
01:24bottle shops so in the 200 bottle shops we've we found that that there's a illicit product in about
01:3330 percent of them this appears to be remarkably consistent going from state to state I will say
01:40as well of the products that we've tested in this first paper one of them was found to have above
01:47regulation levels of methanol inside of it and we have seen that particular product interstate as well as
01:54across metro and regional Victoria so it is a pretty major concern that this product is out there okay
02:00and they're usually found in spirits is that right well our research has really just focused on spirits so
02:07it's it's been advised to us by the ATO as well as different police forces that we've talked to that
02:15spirits would be the simplest to identify on the shelves we do know that there is a greater illicit market
02:22out there but uh so our 30 percent figure really just speaks to the really brazen spirits products
02:28uh that you can identify within five minutes of being in the store okay we'll get to that in a
02:33moment but
02:33how dangerous a situation potentially is this at the moment um the products that we've found uh don't pose
02:43an immediate risk to human life uh the methanol content within them uh may have potential long-term
02:51consequences if if uh consumption is maintained over a long period of time uh we've also found uh a lot
02:59of plasticizers in a couple of the products which again pose risks to uh long-term health conditions
03:06uh that being said the fact that we're detecting methanol and we've only uh we've only been looking at
03:13three products so far in our chemical testing phase is really concerning like it's alarming that we're finding
03:19products so easily uh that do breach uh australia's health and safety guidelines so you say that
03:26these potentially contaminated uh bottles are easily identified what are the telltale signs of those
03:32bottles that consumers should steer clear of the the thing that everyone should steer clear of is a sale
03:39that looks too good to be true if you're uh seeing uh vodka that's be or any spirit really that's
03:45being sold
03:46um anywhere from like 25 to 35 uh you should likely stay away from that particularly if it's a brand
03:53that
03:53you don't recognize uh beyond that um there are quality control issues with these bottles uh for
03:59the most part so sometimes they'll have uh very shoddy labeling they'll be missing things like pregnancy
04:06warning labels the liquid inside a lot of these containers will can uh will have something floating
04:11inside of them or will be discolored uh if you steer clear of these kinds of products even though
04:17uh they are relatively cheap um you you'll be largely avoiding the risk that they pose
04:24and nick how are the bottle shops coming to stock these bottles are they unsuspecting too
04:30that's a really really great question i i would say that the there is some chance that some of
04:37these bottle shops are unsuspecting uh however a lot of these bottle shops uh when we've done our
04:44audits uh are aware of these products uh i had one uh sold to me um by the retailer saying
04:52i drank it
04:53and i didn't die uh so there is some knowledge out there um how widespread that knowledge uh is is
05:01is
05:01yet to be seen but i would say that retailers should know when a deal on their end is too
05:06good to
05:06be true as well um they should hold some responsibility in this space dr nick taylor thank you so much
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