'Moonshiners' stars challenge notorious warning that outlaw liquor can make you go blind

Moonshine’s reputation is enough to make your eyes water.

For generations, Americans have been warned that the notorious outlaw liquor could leave them blind.

But "Moonshiners" stars Mark Ramsey and Eric "Digger" Manes say there's more behind that warning than most people realize.

"There's a huge different thought process behind moonshine than there was, say, in the '40s, '30s, early years," Manes told Fox News Digital.

KENNY LAW, 'MOONSHINERS' STAR, DEAD AT 68 "There was a lot of propaganda out there.

It was said that it could make you go blind, make you die, make you go crazy, make you get the jack leg.

The government was the one that was poisoning the industrial alcohol the people were stealing to make bathtub gin." Historical records support part of Manes' account.

During Prohibition, the federal government required industrial alcohol to contain toxic additives to discourage people from drinking it, according to the Smithsonian Channel .

Some of that alcohol was diverted into the illegal liquor market and sold for consumption, although it was distinct from traditionally distilled moonshine.

The consequences were deadly.

According to the Smithsonian Channel, 66 people died in New York City on Christmas Day 1926 after consuming poisoned industrial alcohol.

The city's medical examiner, Charles Norris, blamed the federal government's practice of adding toxic substances to industrial alcohol, including those involving methyl alcohol, also known as methanol, which can cause blindness and death.

WATCH: ‘MOONSHINERS’ STARS REVEAL THE TRUTH BEHIND A MISUNDERSTOOD TRADITION But not every warning about illicit liquor was a scare tactic.

Ramsey acknowledged that moonshine posed genuine health risks in earlier generations, particularly when distillers unknowingly used dangerous materials to build their equipment.