The Sad Story of the Sneaky Drink in Irkutsk

In a city called Irkutsk, far away in Russia, something very sad happened in December 2016. Lots of people drank a special kind of liquid that they thought was safe, like a yummy juice. But this liquid had a secret ingredient that was like a super-poison!

It was so bad that over 70 people got very, very sick, and sadly, many of them didn't get better. This was the worst time like this in Russia for a very long time.

The people in Irkutsk drank something called 'Boyaryshnik'. It was supposed to be like a warm, comforting drink, maybe like hot chocolate. But this particular bottle was filled with something called methanol.

Methanol is like a sneaky twin of the alcohol that's safe to drink, called ethanol. It looks the same, smells a bit similar, but it's super dangerous for your body. It's like a wolf in sheep's clothing, pretending to be safe but being very harmful.

The people who made this dangerous 'Boyaryshnik' weren't being honest. They used methanol instead of the safe alcohol. They got this methanol from a place that usually makes liquid to keep car windshields clear in the cold!

It's like if someone took paint thinner and tried to sell it as juice. The people who made it were trying to save money, but they ended up hurting so many people. The police found out that the methanol came from someone who worked at the windshield washer fluid factory.

After this terrible event, the grown-ups in charge in Russia decided they had to do something to stop this from happening again. They made the rules much stricter about making and selling drinks. It became harder for people to buy these fake, dangerous drinks.

They wanted to make sure that everyone could trust that the drinks they buy are safe and won't make them sick. It was a very important lesson for everyone.