PHILIPSBURG–Member of Parliament Rolando Brison (United St. Maarten Party) said on Sunday that the very recent news about the tragic deaths of several tourists in the Dominican Republic, some reportedly due to the consumption of counterfeit and decoded products (fake/bad liquor), has created a clear and present danger to all countries, including St Maarten, that do not regulate the supply chain of goods sold in the marketplace.
Brison said the laws and decrees are in place, but the various departments in government need to act immediately and tackle these criminal acts before it is too late. “Now more than ever they are needed to safeguard the health and safety of our local people and millions of tourists,” Brison said.
He is calling on the various ministries for immediate enforcement of the existing laws and will sit down with the various importers to find a short- to mid-term solution. The primary focus of this will be to ensure supply-chain integrity while ensuring that counterfeit and decoded products are permanently eradicated from the marketplace.
Brison said a possible avenue to support these actions would be the setting-up of a unique WhatsApp line and email address for people to send information about infractions so that the respective enforcement agencies have the relevant information and can act immediately in seizure and destruction of product(s).
As of June 30, there had been at least nine deaths in similar circumstances over the past few months. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) along with Dominican Republic authorities are investigating, and the principal theory is that counterfeit/tampered alcohol was the cause of these deaths.
The FBI has reportedly taken samples of alcohol for testing, and the hotels where some tourists died have removed alcohol from the minibars in the hotel rooms. Counterfeit or illegally-made alcohol brings a new level of risk, as it is not monitored for safety and may include added ingredients known to be extremely harmful to health.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 25 per cent of the alcohol consumed worldwide is unrecorded. Counterfeit alcohol is typically meant to resemble legitimate alcohol and expensive spirits in terms of its look, taste and packaging.
One of the key aspects of counterfeit or illegal alcohol is that producers distil the alcohol more cheaply and quickly using dangerous shortcuts in the process, such as adding water and methanol, also known as methyl alcohol, which is highly toxic. Methanol is not intended for human consumption and can cause liver damage, blindness and death if consumed. Earlier this year, toxic alcohol killed at least 154 people in India because it was tainted with methanol.
The various incidents in the Dominican Republic are having a tremendous negative impact on its tourism industry. Bookings are down 74.3 per cent in July and August.
“The effects that any of these incidents would have on St. Maarten and its fragile tourism economy would be detrimental,” Brison said. “It is of the utmost importance that, as a country, we take a proactive approach to safeguard the quality of alcoholic beverages being sold on our island before it is too late.”
In a previous press release by the Inspectorate of Public Health, the department urged consumers to be alert with their purchases after noticing that the labels of food items along with beverages are being tampered with and said that this was a criminal offence. Decoding starts when someone deliberately removes the so-called lot codes from a label to make the product untraceable.
“This is also a criminal offence and can jeopardise the health and safety of all consumers,” Brison said.
Local distributor CC1 was successful in June 2018 in recalling a batch of Stella Artois beer brand that contained particles of glass inside the bottles. Without lot codes this would have been impossible.
The inspectorate said that according to local laws, it is prohibited to import, sell and/or export food products without taking into consideration the labelling requirements as laid down in the National Decree on Food Labelling (AB 2013,GT no. 194). The decree states that all food products, including alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, must have labels with information, instructions and warnings on the production batch.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/89139-mp-brison-sets-out-to-safeguard-residents-tourists-from-bad-liquor
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