this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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Summary

Holly Bowles, a 19-year-old Australian, has become the sixth foreign tourist to die from suspected methanol poisoning in Laos.

She and her friend Bianca Jones fell ill in Vang Vieng, a popular backpacking town, after reportedly consuming tainted alcohol, which can be lethal even in small amounts.

Other victims include a British lawyer, an American man, and two Danish women. Methanol, often found in bootleg or home-distilled alcohol, is believed to be the cause.

Authorities are investigating, with the manager of the hostel where free shots were served detained for questioning.

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[–] PM_ME_WRISTS_GIRL@lemmynsfw.com 8 points 5 hours ago

Other victims include 2 women, a man, and... a lawyer?

[–] irotsoma@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Never drink booze that you don't know the origin of. And never drink homemade liquor unless it's made by someone who is otherwise a professional using professional grade equipment. It's just not worth the risk. By the time you feel the effects of the methanol, it's too late in a majority of cases.

[–] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Homemade alcohol being deadly because of methanol is a myth. If you just look at what ingredients you put it, it's clear the amount of methanol is too small to be deadly.

This is almost always someone cutting their booze with cheap methanol.

[–] RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Except when it isn't. If the price of the locally fermented alcohol is lower than the price of imported methanol (not every country has a chemical industry and some of those countries have a really low GNP), then it's just not going to be the case. And since there have been methanol contaminations in such countries, we know with certainty that it isn't always caused by adding methanol.

Some scientists heard the same argument (that it was added methanol), thought that wouldn't always make sense and then did some research: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5028366/

"This study assessed some traditional fermented beverages and found that some beverages are prone to methanol contamination including cachaca, cholai, agave, arak, plum and grape wines."

[–] SwordInStone@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

You could technically drink it, but accompanied by other alcohol you know the source of. I have no idea about the proportion needed to make it safe.

I wouldn't chance it tho.

[–] riodoro1@lemmy.world 0 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

When locals were dying from it nobody cared.

[–] BeardedGingerWonder 10 points 4 hours ago

Local events don't tend to make international news in general, regardless of where it happens.

[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 94 points 23 hours ago (5 children)

Feel like this needs to be said. If they weren't pretty young blonde women from Australia, this wouldn't be hitting the headlines as much as it is

[–] Lev_Astov@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago

Maybe we just consider it a sacrifice of a few beautiful people to help make things safer for the rest of us.

[–] gcheliotis@lemmy.world 10 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Possibly. But why does this need to be said? How is it relevant here? What does it offer?

[–] Shanedino@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago

Tbf the middle photo is a bit of a paralysis demon.

[–] Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 17 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, this happens with some regularity. Usually during wedding season (dry season) and at large funerals. The reason it's in the news is what you said.

Search any of the local news sites for 'alcohol poisoning' in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and you will have a lot of results.

[–] Geobloke@lemm.ee 13 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Why wouldn't the bbc and Australian media cover the deaths by misfortune of citizens from their home country

[–] Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 hours ago

Well of course they would. It's just unusual that the victims weren't local.

[–] lennybird@lemmy.world 14 points 22 hours ago

Also goes for stories covering children, too.

As an aside, I always wondered if the opposite rings true in countries where the minority is white. Ethnocentrism?

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Isnt the antidote actual ethanol?

[–] Maalus@lemmy.world 46 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes, but you need to drink untainted alcohol in huge quantities to give your liver something to do instead of killing you. When you don't know, you drink in moderation, or worse each following drink has more methanol in it. You might be fucked before you even realize what's going on, and even with a doctor in the room it's not immediately obvious what's happening.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Maalus@lemmy.world 7 points 21 hours ago

Yeah methanol poisoning is no joke. Huge warning signs on cisterns saying "contaminated with methanol" yet people will still try to steal it for drinking and end up blind or dead. Usually doesn't make the news since yaknow, stupidity and ignoring obvious warning signs.

[–] perestroika@lemm.ee 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The preferred antidote is fomepizole together with hemodialysis.

Fomepizole works by blocking the enzyme that converts methanol and ethylene glycol to their toxic breakdown products.[4]

[–] Fuck_u_spez_@sh.itjust.works 4 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Didn't hospitals just used to keep a bottle of whiskey in the med supply closet before this stuff was developed?

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 5 points 18 hours ago

Any poison can be medicine at the right dose and any medicine can be a poison at the wrong dose. There's probably a very long list of aliments that ethanol can treat.

[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (2 children)

I heard of it as an emergency stopgap measure until you can make it to the hospital to get pumped out and properly treated. But it's been a while, I could misremember

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 6 points 18 hours ago

You can stomach pump some out, but it's not going to grab anything that's already in your blood stream. Ethanol is still used as an internal treatment for methanol poisoning.