Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.19
By Temkin Jafarov - Trend:
Some 53 people died in Iran from consuming counterfeit alcoholic beverages in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (starting in March), head of the Forensic Medical Examination Department of Iranian Justice Ministry Kambiz Sultani said.
He said this figure is 31 percent less than in the same period of the previous year, Iranian IRNA news agency reported on Dec.19.
Sultani said counterfeit alcoholic beverages contain methanol, the use of which causes poisoning and leads to death.
"Home-made counterfeit alcoholic beverages contain methanol instead of ethanol," he added.
There is no the exact statistics of persons suffering from alcoholism in Iran.
Over 200 million liters of various alcoholic beverages are produced illegally in Iran per year, according to Hassan Tamini, the deputy chairman of Iranian parliament's Health Commission.
Iranian media reported that currently, over a million people consume alcoholic beverages in the country and 30 percent of them are women.
Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the purchase, sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages was banned in Iran.
Iranian law envisages imprisonment for the period from six months to one year, 74 lashes and a fine for the purchase or sale of alcoholic beverages.
Edited by CN
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