So the bootleggers that trafficked in illegal alcohol often stole industrial alcohol instead.

所以走私非法酒精的走私贩通常会偷取工业酒精。

Instead, lots of people got sick and even died from drinking industrial alcohol.

相反，许多人因饮用工业酒精而生病，甚至死亡。

But industrial alcohols like methanol is(are) sometimes used to increase the potency of the drink.

但是有时会添加甲醇等工业酒精以增加饮品的效力。

During the first several years of prohibition, the U. S. Treasury Department estimated tens of millions of gallons of industrial alcohol were stolen for human consumption.

在禁酒令的最初几年里，美国财政部估计有数千万加仑工业酒精被盗供人消费。

To prevent industrial alcohol from being consumed, the government required manufacturers to add harmful chemicals, leading to thousands of poisoning deaths.

为了防止工业酒精被消耗，政府要求制造商添加有害化学物质， 导致数千人中毒死亡。

There was already some methanol in most industrial alcohol formulations, but the government added more — a lot more — to the point where it was sometimes 10% of the entire product.

大多数工业酒精配方中已经有一些甲醇，但政府添加了更多——以至于有时占产品的 10% 浓度。

So starting in 1906, almost 15 years before prohibition, the U. S. government began adding toxic chemicals to industrial alcohol to make it cheaper — a tactic already used in other places like Europe.

因此，从 1906 年开始，也就是禁令实施的 15 年前，美国政府开始在工业酒精中添加有毒化学物质，以使其更便宜——这一策略当时已经在欧洲等其他地方使用。