Laos tourist deaths: How dangerous is fake alcohol?
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Vang Vieng is a tiny town in Laos and it's known by backpackers for its parties. Hostels hand out free shots and young tourists sip from plastic buckets of booze. Vodka shots are given out during activities like tubing, which is floating down the river on a giant rubber ring. And it has epic scenery with limestone mountains and paddy fields all around. But this town is now at the centre of an international scandal. Six tourists have died after suspected methanol poisoning.

Methanol is a deadly substance, often found in home-brewed alcohol. And in this episode, you're going to hear how it can get into your drinks, what it does to the body, and how to avoid it. I'm Hannah Gelbart, and this is What in the World from the BBC World Service. To start off with, let's find out more about what has been happening in Laos now with William Lee Adams from the What in the World team. Hi. Hey, Hannah. Hi.

So what do we know about the victims in this? So five of the six victims were women. They included a British woman, two young Australians and two young Danish women. They were all between the ages of 19 and 28. The

The only male victim was a 57-year-old American, and that led to online speculation that only women's drinks had been spiked with methanol. But the fact is, we simply don't know. It's still a mystery. And they were all staying at the same place, right? That's right. All of the victims were staying at the Nana Backpackers Hostel, and that's now closed.

Van Ving's tourism police have said that a number of people had been detained in the case, but no charges have been filed. And staff members at the Nana Backpacker Hostel confirmed that the manager and owner were among those taken in for questioning. We need to stress, though, that the owners have denied serving illicit alcohol. I imagine that people traveling nearby must be really scared now. Do you know if backpackers in the region have changed their behavior, if they're being more careful?

Yeah, so backpacking culture frequently draws young people. They're in search of a big adventure. They're often away from home for the very first time. And I'm saying all that to point out this sense of freedom, the sense of independence. And that's now sort of been dampened.

Very clearly, the deaths have spooked many. Some people say they're more wary of drinking alcohol. So often at these hostels, the managers will give out free shots or free buckets of alcohol, but people are now shying away from those and turning toward canned drinks that have not yet been opened.

But rather than hearing from me, let's actually hear from some backpackers on the ground. They spoke to our Asia correspondent, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes. I spoke to my mum and dad yesterday just as the news was coming out. And they were both just absolutely distraught, like crying, saying, please come home. And it's just, it's awful, really. So I've managed to book. I'm going to Australia next. I managed to move the flight forward by two days and get one of the few trains with tickets left.

out of Vang Vieng today. It seems like everyone's still here having a good time but there's definitely like a mood in the air, people are being a lot more cautious and there's everyone's all saying the same thing which is you know don't drink the spirits. I've been here for like a week now the people here are absolutely lovely they are some of the nicest people I've spoken to. There's never a purpose of them out to get you. You think about it more it's not that we don't drink anymore but

You just have to really be careful. In Vietnam, you know, you get free drinks, particularly if you're playing games in the evening, and we've just never thought about it. You just presume that what they're giving you is safe. So, like, we've had free shots, we've had buckets before, but moving on, I think...

We're just not going to take the risk at all. It's definitely not worth it. Obviously, before this happened, you wouldn't think about it, but now it has. It's really impacted how we view drinking culture going forward. So, William, you can hear how concerned some travellers are. Why is it that methanol poisoning is a problem in Laos?

Yeah, so Southeast Asia as a region is known to have the highest rates of methanol poisoning globally. Indonesia actually has the most reported cases, but Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines are also affected. People tend to point to two things. The first is poor regulation, and the second is economic pressure. The fact is that local producers will sometimes use methanol because it's a cheaper ingredient than the more expensive Ls.

ethanol. Now, ethanol, that's the intoxicating ingredient in alcoholic beverages like beer, wine, and distilled spirits, and it's generally safe to drink in moderation. Methanol is not.

It's used in things like windshield wiper. But bootleggers use it because it can make a drink stronger and in their mind improves low quality alcohol. And in this case, I guess one of the reasons why it has brought the attention of the international media is because it is tourists. It's young people who are traveling, who are having their gap year or their year abroad. Is it just tourists and backpackers who are affected by methanol poisoning or are locals also affected by it?

So in recent days, we've only heard about international tourists. But if we zoom out, we can see that methanol impacts people across numerous countries. And that does, in fact, include locals. So, for instance, we know of much higher deaths in India. Just in June, the Indian state of Tamil Nadu reported that more than 50 people died after consuming toxic methanol.

bootleg alcohol, and these were not tourists. In that same case, more than 150 people were treated for related illnesses like excessive diarrhea as a result of drinking bootleg alcohol. We could also look to Iran. In October, the official state-run news agency reported that at least 26 people died after drinking alcohol that contained methanol, and hundreds more were hospitalized.

But Hannah, that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to drinking bootleg alcohol. In Iran in 2020, we know that 700 people died from alcohol poisoning. So it really is a very tragic situation. It's so much bigger than Laos and just affecting tourists. It is really affecting many hundreds of people around the world. William, thank you so much for coming into the studio. Thanks, Hannah. Thank you.

Now let's find out a little bit more about methanol, about what it does to your body. I'm here with the BBC's digital health editor, Michelle Roberts. Hi, Michelle. Hello. So what exactly is methanol and what is it used for? So methanol is an industrial chemical.

So you'd find it in things like windscreen shield washer. You might also find it in antifreeze. It's really not designed for human consumption. It's really toxic, which is why we've been seeing these problems with it. But we do know that sometimes it can be found in some alcoholic drinks. And what we're talking about here is ones that have been sort of homebrewed,

bootleg alcohol. Sometimes it's added on purpose to try and make the drink stronger, more cheaply. Sometimes it's just because there are impurities and that, you know, the brewing process, the distilling hasn't been done correctly. And so that there are higher levels of methanol than you would normally expect to see and it's not safe. And what happens when you consume it?

So initially, if you were to have a drink that had some methanol in it, you wouldn't necessarily know because it does taste like alcohol and the initial effects are the same. So you would feel intoxicated. You might feel a bit nauseous and you might...

But it's further down the line, it's hours later that the real damage starts to happen. And that's because of how methanol is broken down within the body, how your body tries to get rid of it. And it's the metabolites of that. So some of the chemicals that are broken down into that cause the real harm.

And what are those chemicals? So we're talking about formic acid, we're talking about formate and formaldehyde. And those are toxic. They start attacking the nerves and the organs because of what they're doing within the body. And that's when you can get some of the more serious problems that you see. So it can attack the cells at the back of the eye, so it can cause blindness. You can get seizures, coma and sadly death.

Is there any way to spot that methadone might be in your drink? Well, that's the risky thing. So no, really, unless you've got a whole testing kit, which is not available. You know, if you're in a lab, you'd be able to check these things. But for the person who's just travelling and having drinks...

They really wouldn't know. I mean, obviously, there's some red flags that if you're getting something for free, lots and lots of it. You know, we've heard about lots of free shots being given out and maybe the bottle itself doesn't look like a vodka or a whiskey that you might recognise or...

But ultimately, that's the danger if you're particularly going for these homemade drinks or cocktails. So you don't know what's in it. So the advice to travellers is be really, really super careful. Think about what you're drinking. And obviously, you know, if you can stick to licensed bars and either avoid alcohol or have something like a beer with a seal on it that you know more what you're getting.

We're talking about this because six people have died now from suspected methanol poisoning. Five of them were women.

Is it certain groups that might be more susceptible to the effects of methanol poisoning? Now, with the deaths, we don't know where the methanol got into their system from. We don't know which drinks it was and we don't know which premises. But certainly from what we know about alcohol and methanol, it's how your body handles it. And if you're proportionally bigger, your tolerance of alcohol certainly increases.

tends to be a little bit higher too. So women tend to be a bit smaller. So that might explain some of the stuff that we've been seeing, but obviously it's all a theory. We just don't know

how the victims got their their methanol. And if someone suspects they might have methanol poisoning that they might have drunk and something that has methanol in it is there any way that they can be treated before some of the more serious symptoms happen? So time's key here obviously it's a medical emergency it should be treated in hospital so if you know that somebody has had something and you think there's a suspicion that they're getting worse and that

this thing you're not quite sure what they've had, do seek urgent help. There are treatments that can be done and it's about sort of interrupting that breakdown of the methanol by the liver so you can give other things that out-compete the methanol so that the body then just excretes it in other ways. But you need to do this with quick time.

Any other tips that you might have for people out there who are, maybe they want to go travelling, maybe they've been saving up for the trip of a lifetime and now they're actually really scared about all of this? I think really it's about being as prepared and sensible as you can be while still enjoying yourself. Just think about what you're consuming, what you're drinking and just the sensible advice. Michelle, thank you very much. Thank you.

That is it for today's episode. But if you want to hear more from us, particularly from Southeast Asia, we've done a couple of really interesting stories recently. We talked about flex culture in Malaysia and whether shopping addiction is driving Malaysia's youth debt crisis. We also talked about how Thailand's same-sex marriage law could impact Southeast Asia. You can listen to those episodes and all of our other ones wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

And we're also on YouTube on the BBC World Service's YouTube channel. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of What in the World from the BBC World Service. I'm Hannah Gelbart and we'll see you soon. Bye.