What is methanol, how does it end up in alcoholic drinks, and how can you avoid it?
A British backpacker and four other people have died in southeast Asia after reports of suspected methanol poisoning.
Four people had already died following the poisonings – an Australian named Bianca Jones, 19, from Melbourne, as well as two Danish women in their 20s and a 56-year-old US citizen.
British tourist Simone White, 28, from Orpington, Kent, had fallen ill after reportedly drinking “free shots” from a local bar in the resort of Vang Vieng. She was one of six British tourists being treated for methanol poisoning in Laos.
“We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Laos, and we are in contact with the local authorities,” the foreign office said.
New Zealand has confirmed one of its citizens has also fallen ill.
Authorities are now warning travellers about the risks of methanol poisoning, how it happens, and how to avoid it.
Vang Vieng, Laos. File pic: iStock
What is methanol?
Methanol, or CH3OH, is very similar to ethanol – the pure form of alcohol in alcoholic drinks.
While like ethanol, it is an odourless, tasteless, and highly flammable liquid, it has a different chemical structure that makes it toxic for humans.
Otherwise known as wood alcohol, methanol is most often used to make solvents, pesticides, paint thinners, and alternative fuels.
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What makes it so dangerous is the way our bodies metabolise it.
Once consumed, our enzymes metabolise methanol into formaldehyde, the substance used to make industrial glue and embalming substances, before breaking it down into formic acid.
“The formic acid upsets the acid balance in blood and the major consequence is initially the effect on someone’s breathing. There are effects on many other organs, the kidney being one,” says Professor Alastair Hay, emeritus professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds.
“Formaldehyde attacks nerves, particularly the optic nerve and blindness is a potential risk,” he adds.
How does it end up in alcoholic drinks?
In southeast Asia and other popular tourist destinations, methanol can be found in alcoholic drinks for two main reasons.
Firstly, it is cheaper than ethanol, so it is sometimes added instead to save costs, before the counterfeit alcohol is bottled and sold in shops and bars.
Alternatively, it can occur by accident when alcohol is homemade – something common across southeast Asia.
When alcohol is distilled and fermented without the appropriate monitoring, it can sometimes produce methanol in toxic quantities.
Because it is impossible to tell the difference between methanol and ethanol content without specialist equipment – homemade drinks are often offered to tourists without anyone knowing how dangerous they are.
Simone White
Bianca Jones
What are the symptoms of methanol poisoning?
Methanol is highly toxic, so as little as 25ml can prove fatal.
Methanol poisoning can be treated by using ethanol to counter the effects on the body – but only within the first 10 to 30 hours after consumption.
This makes early diagnosis and warnings to others critical.
The most common symptoms are:
- Vomiting and nausea;
- Changes in vision, including blurring, loss of sight, and difficulty looking at bright lights;
- Abdominal and muscle pain;
- Dizziness and confusion;
- Drowsiness and fatigue.
Methanol poisoning symptoms are similar to those from alcohol poisoning – but are often more severe. If drinks were left unattended or your symptoms appear disproportionate to the amount you drank, it could be methanol poisoning, authorities warn.
How it is treated?
Professor Hay says treatment involves removing methanol from the blood via dialysis – while “keeping someone mildly drunk” by giving them ethanol at the same time.
“The principle behind administering ethanol is quite simple; it delays methanol metabolism,” he says.
“Both alcohols are broken down by the same liver enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase. But the enzyme prefers ethanol.
“So ethanol acts as a competitive inhibitor largely preventing methanol breakdown, but markedly slowing it down, allowing the body to vent methanol from the lungs and some through the kidneys, and a little through sweat.”
This avoids the process of methanol ultimately metabolising as formic acid, he adds.
How can you avoid it while travelling?
UK travel advice for Laos and other parts of the region advises the most commonly affected drinks are:
- Local spirits, such as rice and palm liquor, often labelled ‘special’ or ‘happy’ drinks;
- Spirit-based mixed drinks such as cocktails;
- Counterfeit brand-name bottled alcohol sold in bars and shops.
In order to minimse risks, travellers should:
- Buy alcohol only from licensed bars, hotels, or shops;
- Check labels for signs bottles may be counterfeit, including poor print quality or spelling errors;
- Avoid homemade alcohol;
- Check bottles are properly sealed before drinking from them;
- Avoid free drinks you have not seen poured yourself;
- Do not leave drinks or food unattended.
There is much that is still not known about the US strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Reports are coming in about which sites were hit and what military elements were involved, as President Donald Trump hails the attack on social media.
Here’s what we know so far.
Follow latest: US bombers strike three Iranian nuclear sites
Which sites were hit?
America appears to have hit the three key locations in Iran’s nuclear programme.
They include Isfahan, the location of a significant research base, as well as uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow.
Natanz was believed to have been previously damaged in Israeli strikes after bombs disrupted power to the centrifuge hall, possibly destroying the machines indirectly.
However the facility at Fordow, which is buried around 80 metres below a mountain, had previously escaped major damage.
Details about the damage in the US strikes is not yet known, although Mr Trump said the three sites had been “obliterated”.
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Fordow: What we know about Iran’s secretive ‘nuclear mountain’
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Sky’s Mark Stone explains how Iran might respond to the US strike on Tehran’s nuclear sites.
What weapons were used in the attacks?
The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation, but a US official said B-2 heavy bombers were involved.
Fox News host Sean Hannity said he had spoken with the president and that six bunker buster bombs were used on the Fordow facility.
Bunker buster bombs are designed to explode twice. Once to breach the ground surface and again once the bomb has burrowed down to a certain depth.
A file picture of a GBU-57 bunker buster bomb, which was possibly used in the attack on Fordow. Pic: AP
Israel has some in its arsenal but does not have the much more powerful GBU-57, which can only be launched from the B-2 bomber and was believed to be the only bomb capable of breaching Fordow.
Hannity said 30 Tomahawk missiles fired by US submarines 400 miles away struck the Iranian nuclear sites of Natanz and Isfahan.
The US has carried out a “very successful attack” on three nuclear sites on Iran, President Donald Trump has said.
The strikes, which the US leader announced on social media, reportedly include a hit on the heavily-protected Fordow enrichment plant which is buried deep under a mountain.
The other sites hit were at Natanz and Isfahan. It brings the US into direct involvement in the war between Israel and Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the “bold decision” by Mr Trump, saying it would “change history”.
Iran has repeatedly denied that it is seeking a nuclear weapon and the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said in June that it has no proof of a “systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon”.
Follow latest: US bombers strike three Iranian nuclear sites
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Trump: Iran strikes ‘spectacular success’
Addressing the nation in the hours after the strikes, Mr Trump said that Iran must now make peace or “we will
go after” other targets in Iran.
Commenting on the operation, he said that the three Iranian sites had been “obliterated”.
“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight
days,” he said.
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Benjamin Netanyahu said Donald Trump and the US have acted with strength following strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In a posting on Truth Social earlier, Mr Trump said, “All planes are safely on their way home” and he congratulated “our great American Warriors”. He added: “Fordow is gone.”
He also threatened further strikes on Iran unless it doesn’t “stop immediately”, adding: “Now is the time for peace.”
It is not yet clear if the UK was directly involved in the attack.
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‘Iranians have to repond’
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Fordow: What we know about Iran’s secretive ‘nuclear mountain’
Among the sites hit was Fordow, a secretive nuclear facility buried around 80 metres below a mountain and one of two key uranium enrichment plants in Iran.
“A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” Mr Trump said. “Fordow is gone.”
There had been a lot of discussion in recent days about possible American involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict, and much centred around the US possibly being best placed to destroy Fordow.
Meanwhile, Natanz and Isfahan were the other two sites hit in the US attack.
Natanz is the other major uranium enrichment plant in Iran and was believed to have possibly already suffered extensive damage in Israel’s strikes earlier this week.
Isfahan features a large nuclear technology centre and enriched uranium is also stored there, diplomats say.
Map showing the Fordow enrichment plant
US media reported that six ‘bunker buster’ bombs were used to strike Fordow.
Mr Trump said no further strikes were planned and that he hoped diplomacy would now take over.
It’s not yet known what Iran’s response will be – particularly as the government was already struggling to repel Israel.
However a commentator on Iranian state TV said every US citizen or military in the region was now a legitimate target.
World
Like George W Bush did in Iraq, if Israel breaks Iran it will end up owning the chaos that could ensue
Israelis are good at tactics, poor at strategic vision, it has been observed.
Their campaign against Iran may be a case in point.
Short termism is understandable in a region that is so unpredictable. Why make elaborate plans if they are generally undone by unexpected events? It is a mindset that is familiar to anyone who has lived or worked there.
And it informs policy-making. The Israeli offensive in Gaza is no exception. The Israeli government has never been clear how it will end or what happens the day after that in what remains of the coastal strip. Pressed privately, even senior advisers will admit they simply do not know.
It may seem unfair to call a military operation against Iran that literally took decades of planning short-termist or purely tactical. There was clearly a strategy of astonishing sophistication behind a devastating campaign that has dismantled so much of the enemy’s capability.
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How close is Iran to producing a nuclear weapon?
But is there a strategic vision beyond that? That is what worries Israel’s allies.
It’s not as if we’ve not been here before, time and time again. From Libya to Afghanistan and all points in between we have seen the chaos and carnage that follows governments being changed.
Hundreds of thousands have died. Vast swathes of territory remain mired in turmoil or instability.
Which is where a famous warning sign to American shoppers in the 80s and 90s comes in.
Ahead of the disastrous invasion that would tear Iraq apart, America’s defence secretary, Colin Powell, is said to have warned US president George W Bush of the “Pottery Barn rule”.
The Pottery Barn was an American furnishings store. Signs among its wares told clumsy customers: “You break it, you own it.”
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Iran and Israel exchange attacks
Bush did not listen to Powell hard enough. His administration would end up breaking Iraq and owning the aftermath in a bloody debacle lasting years.
Israel is not invading Iran, but it is bombing it back to the 80s, or even the 70s, because it is calling for the fall of the government that came to power at the end of that decade.
Iran’s leadership is proving resilient so far but we are just a week in. It is a country of 90 million, already riven with social and political discontent. Its system of government is based on factional competition, in which paranoia, suspicion and intense rivalries are the order of the day.
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After half a century of authoritarian theocratic rule there are no opposition groups ready to replace the ayatollahs. There may be a powerful sense of social cohesion and a patriotic resentment of outside interference, for plenty of good historic reasons.
But if that is not enough to keep the country together then chaos could ensue. One of the biggest and most consequential nations in the region could descend into violent instability.
That will have been on Israel’s watch. If it breaks Iran it will own it even more than America owned the disaster in Iraq.
Iran and Israel are, after all, in the same neighbourhood.
Has Israel thought through the consequences? What is the strategic vision beyond victory?
And if America joins in, as Donald Trump is threatening, is it prepared to share that legacy?
At the very least, is his administration asking its allies whether they have a plan for what could come next?
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