Brits heading to popular holiday hotspots in South East Asia have been warned of the dangers of drinking alcohol while abroad, following a spate of methanol poisonings.
British lawyer Simone White, 28, is currently fighting for her life in hospital with four other women, including an Australian teen, having died amid a mass poisoning event in Laos.
About a dozen more people are believed to be in hospital after allegedly being served free ‘vodka’ shots containing the poisonous substance at a bar in Vang Vieng, a popular destination among Western backpackers.
In response to incident the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is urging Brits to be cautious about drinking in Laos and keep an eye-out for signs of counterfeit booze.
Methanol poisoning is a little-known risk present in many parts of the world with criminal gangs sneaking it into replicas of well-known spirit brands which can then be served at bars in cocktails.
The recent wave of deaths and critical injuries comes a year after a coroner warned the British Government wasn’t doing enough to warn travellers of the risk posed by contaminated alcoholic drinks following the death of a British woman in Indonesia.
Methanol, like the ethanol we consume in beer, wine and spirits, is a colourless liquid that smells similar to booze but is far cheaper to produce.
But its affects are for more catastrophic.
Brit Simone White, 28, is an associate lawyer based in London specialising in intellectual property and technology at American law firm Squire Patton Boggs – but is now fighting for her life in hospital
Bianca Jones, 19, has become the fourth person to die after consuming alleged ‘methanol-laced’ drinks in Vang Vieng, Laos
Ms Jones and her best friend Holly Bowles (pictured) are two of 14 tourists who are believed to be victims of a mass methanol poisoning in the party town of Vang Vieng
When broken down by the body methanol produce toxic chemicals that actively kill cells, leading to organ damage and occasionally, death.
As little as one shot of a methanol-laced spirit is enough to kill.
Symptoms of poisoning begin around 12 hours after consumption and resemble consuming too much alcohol — including nausea and vomiting.
Even if treatment is delivered quickly, sensitive tissues like the eyes can become irreversibly damaged, leading to permanent blindness or vision loss.
Ms White, from Orpington in Kent, was among the group of backpackers taken to hospital when she became ill last week in Vang Vieng.
She is an associate lawyer based in London specialising in intellectual property and technology at American law firm Squire Patton Boggs.
Reports have also surfaced of two further victims — 19-year-old Australian Bianca Jones who sadly died, and her friend Holly Bowles, who remains gravely ill in hospital.
Two Danish women in their 20s and a 56-year-old American named Bianca Jones are also known to have died from the aftermath of the methanol poisoning in the last month.
In response to the incident the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) urging Brits to be cautious about drinking in Laos.
Hostel manager and bartender Duong Duc Toan (pictured) who served the girls the Laotian vodka, has claimed the Tiger Vodka was not what made them sick
CCTV footage from inside the villa showed the Binaca and Holly being transported to hospital one-by-one on the back of a motorbike after they failed to come out of their shared room for 24 hours
An update on its website said Brits should take care of any spirit-based drinks particularity those offered for free.
The FCDO said to minimise risk people should only consume drinks from licensed liquor stores, bars and hotels and to check the spellings and print quality of labels of bottles for signs of counterfeit products.
It comes a year after a British coroner said the FCDO should do more to warn Brits overseas about the risks of methanol poisoning.
The recommendations were made in a report written after an inquest into the death of Kirsty Margaret McKiel, 38, who died in Bali in 2022 from methanol poisoning after consuming alcohol she believed was safe.
Coroner Alison Mutch wrote that the issue was a growing problem in areas of Asia but there as lack of knowledge of the risk among Brits.
‘Methanol is used rather than ethanol in spirits aimed at the Western market and sold even through apparently reputable suppliers,’ she said.
‘There was little publicity by the UK Government of the risk in contrast to the approach taken by the Australian Government who had undertaken a campaign to increase awareness to protect their citizens travelling in areas of Asia such as Bali.’
A response by the FCDO said it would ‘strengthen its language’ surrounding the risk of methanol poisoning in Indonesia and ‘would consider’ if there was a need to reflect the risk of methanol poisoning in other countries.
‘We will consider how to represent this alongside other risks to British nationals so that we set out all relevant risks proportionally,’ the response read.
The FCDO said it would also work with student ambassadors to warn young people about the risks of methanol poisoning overseas in general.
The Australian Government publishes an active list online of countries where methanol poisoning has been recorded, this includes Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Turkey and now Laos.
The UK’s equivalent resource for on the risk of methanol poisoning overseas doesn’t mention any specific countries.
Instead, Brits must visit a specific safety information page for their destination.
MailOnline contacted the FCDO for any further advice or changes it had made to information on methanol poisoning.
Methanol poisoning is most frequently reported in Asia though cases are known to occur in destinations more frequently visited by Brits such as Turkey.
One famous incident in 2011 involved the death of four Russians on a yacht after consuming a whiskey bottle containing methanol.
