Drug company officials yesterday ordered the recall of bottles of ethanol sold since the death of a 45-year-old man from methanol poisoning.

BDC Ltd. also said it will cease selling large bottles of ethanol and will only import the substance in small pre-packed containers for ear drops.

Both measures were announced after a jury returned a verdict of misadventure at the end of the inquest into the death of William Henderson.

Last night Mr. Henderson's widow Jennifer Henderson, who is suing BDC over her husband's death, was not available for comment.

However her attorney Sonia Grant said: "The verdict will help in the civil suit and I hope it will now be settled out of court and brought to a conclusion as quickly as possible.'' Father-of-four Mr. Henderson, of Southcourt Avenue, Paget, died in December 1995 after drinking methanol from bottles labelled ethanol bought from the Paget Pharmacy on December 6.

He was admitted to the intensive care unit at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital on December 7, but died four days later.

The inquest was told that levels of methanol in his blood were 11 times the danger limit causing irreversible brain damage.

After his death Police seized two other ethanol bottles from the Paget Pharmacy -- which were also found to be methanol.

Ethanol is pure alcohol, found in drinks such as rum, and methanol is more commonly known as methylated spirits, which is often used as fuel in items such as fondue heaters.

BDC is the parent company of Phoenix Stores Ltd. which runs the Phoenix Centre, Paget Pharmacy, Woodbourne Chemist, Collector's Hill Apothecary and the Bermuda Pharmacy.

The inquest heard that ethanol and methanol bottles for all the pharmacies were filled at the Bermuda Pharmacy.

Litre and half-litre methanol bottles were filled from a 56-gallon drum and ethanol from one gallon jugs was used to fill ear droppers and 140 millilitre bottles.

Yesterday BDC Ltd. said it was recalling the large bottles of ethanol sold from its pharmacies since December, 1995.

It will also stop selling the large bottles and import the ear droppers -- ending the bottling of ethanol at the Bermuda Pharmacy.

Ward Young, BDC's president, said: "Mr. Henderson's death was a very tragic occurrence and we are deeply saddened that it happened.

"We are taking these steps so that it never happens again although we are still not sure how it happened.'' He said anyone who had bought bottles of ethanol from a BDC Ltd. store should return them to one of company' stores and they will be fully refunded.

After delivering their verdict, members of the inquest jury recommended recalling the ethanol bottles packaged before January, 1996.

They also recommended that all ethanol products for sale at pharmacies "should not be openly available and should be sold only by request''.

They also said that pharmacies should keep logs for all packaged or prepared ethanol products which should include batch numbers, date of bottling and the name of the person who bottled them.

Of the seven other pharmacies in Bermuda, four keep ethanol, one stocks neither ethanol or methanol and only two keep both and already employ strict controls.

The Somerset Pharmacy sells ethanol in dropper bottles and sells methanol on request from customers.

A spokesman at the Pharmacy said: "We only sell small bottles of ethanol for ear drops; anything subject to abuse has to be controlled.

"Ethanol and methanol should be controlled from the pharmacy and sold by the pharmacist so there is some control.'' White's Pharmacy sells both ethanol in one, two and four ounce bottles for ear drops and methanol in 12 ounce bottles for fondue flames and employs strict controls on their sale.

Pharmacist Lyn-Anne Bolton said both were kept behind the pharmacy counter and there were checks and balances on their bottling.

"We have the date they were bottled and the initials of the person who did the bottling, we bottle them at different times and we label them as we bottle them. We also type the labels out at the time of dispensing.

"It would be very difficult to mix them up and both are kept in the dispensary so we can control their sale,'' said Mrs. Bolton.

Caesar's Pharmacy, Hamilton Pharmacy, People's Pharmacy and Robertson's Drug Store sell small ethanol ear droppers. The Clarendon Pharmacy sells neither ethanol or methanol.

COURT CTS INQUEST INQ DEATH DEAD OBT