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alcohol denat?

post #1 of 2
1/3/10 at 5:09pm
Thread Starter 
I've noticed that alcohol denat. is in several of the products I've tried (Crew Fiber, Crew paste, Aveda grooming clay). Isn't this supposed to be a 'bad' alcohol? Why do all these expensive salon products include it? WTF?
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post #2 of 2
1/3/10 at 10:11pm
"Denatured alcohol is not, in itself, a preferred product "” that is, it is not something which would be normally demanded if given the alternative of normal ethanol. Denatured alcohol and its manufacture are a public policy compromise. The supply and demand for denatured alcohol arises from the fact that normal alcohol (specifically ethanol, suitable for human consumption as a drink) is usually very expensive compared to similar chemicals, being highly taxed for revenue and public health policy purposes (see sin tax). As a result, if pure ethanol were made cheaply available for other useful industrial and commercial purposes (such as fuel or solvents) this would create a temptation or incentive to convert relatively cheap industrial ethanol for human consumption.

Denatured alcohol provides a solution to permit legitimate use and manufacture of ethanol, whereby cheap ethanol can be made available for non-consumption use without the risk of it being converted for consumption. The process creates a modified ethanol that is not suitable for drinking, but is otherwise similar to ethanol for most purposes. As a result there is no duty on denatured alcohol in most countries, making it considerably cheaper than pure ethanol. Consequently, its composition is tightly defined by government regulations which vary between countries.

In instances where absolutely pure ethanol is needed at a reasonable non-consumption-taxed price (for example, at chemical research laboratories), tight security procedures are required to eliminate the possibility of conversion for human consumption "” specifically, tracking the purchase and distribution of the alcohol and ensuring compliance of workers who handle the pure ethanol"

"In the United States, small amounts of denatured alcohol are used in many consumer products such as toothpaste where they are labeled as "SD alcohol XX", where SD stands for "specifically denatured" and XX is the formula used in the denaturing process that specifies the denaturants. These formulas for denatured alcohol are found in 27 CFR part 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations.[8]"

"Despite its poisonous nature, denatured alcohol is sometimes consumed as a surrogate alcohol, which can result in blindness or death if denatured alcohol contains methanol. To help prevent this, denatonium is often added to give the substance an extremely bitter flavor. Substances such as pyridine help to give the mixture an unpleasant odor, and emetic (vomiting) agents such as syrup of ipecac may also be included. In Poland denatured alcohol contains only substances having bitter flavor (like acetylsalicylic acid) and odour, and does not contain methanol or any substance of severe toxicity."


*Quoted from Wikipedia. Hope that helps!
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