Interior Ministry: 2,000 bottles of Boyaryshnik, which causes deadly poisoning, removed from Irkutsk retail outlets
IRKUTSK. Dec 19 (Interfax) - The police and investigators have seized some 2,000 bottles of Boyaryshnik bath concentrate during an inspection of pavilions selling alcohol products in Irkutsk, which was organized on Monday due to the mass poisoning with a surrogate liquid and the death of over 30 people.
Over 200 retail outlets in the Irkutsk Novo-Lenino neighborhood, including wholesale markets, have been inspected, the press service for the Interior Ministry's Main Department for the region said.
"Over 2,000 liters of alcohol was removed from illegal turnover and outlets selling the cosmetic product Boyaryshnik have been determined. Some 2,000 0.25 ml bottles of this substance have been seized," the report said.
Samples of Boyaryshnik have been sent to the expert center of the Russian Interior Ministry's Main Department for the Irkutsk region.
District police officers, in cooperation with the district administration and housing managing companies, are talking to people about the prevention of consumption of surrogate products and suspicious liquids produced from alcohol.
Retail trade employees are also being informed about criminal liability for selling low-quality alcohol-containing products.
A mass surrogate alcohol poisoning occurred in the Novo-Lenino neighborhood of Irkutsk. The victims, men and women aged from 35 to 50, were hospitalized last weekend. According to the preliminary information, all of them consumed the Boyaryshnik (hawthorn) cosmetic product.
According to the most recent information, 33 people have died. People poisoned by this substance, of which most are in serious condition, have been hospitalized.
The regional health ministry blamed methyl alcohol or methanol for the poisoning.
Two stores selling the alcohol-containing liquid which caused the mass poisoning have been identified and are being searched by detectives of the Russian Investigative Committee. The manufacturer of the surrogate alcohol has also been identified. Two suspected distributors have been detained.
A criminal case was opened following the mass poisoning on the counts of 'production, storing and selling of unsafe goods which caused the death of two or more persons'.