methanol

8 Stories

One Drink Robbed Her of Her Eyesight
One Drink Robbed
Her of Her Vision
May 4, 2025 6:30 AM CDT

One Drink Robbed Her of Her Vision

Ashley King recounts her story for the Guardian

(Newser) - Ashley King offers a cautionary tale in the Guardian that doubles as an inspirational one. Back in 2011, on the last night of a vacation in Bali, King and her best friend partied all night in the tourist town of Kuta. The next morning, however, King struggled with symptoms that...

Male Fruit Flies Get Tipsy and the Ladies Come Running

New research finds that alcohol causes males of the species to produce, emit more pheromones

(Newser) - Fruit flies—they're just like us. Meaning, booze seems to boost sexytime for the pesky insect that hovers around fermented drinks and alcohol-producing rotting fruit, but perhaps not for the most obvious reason. According to new research published last week in the Science Advances journal, female members of the...

Hostel Staff Held Over Tourist Deaths in Laos

Methanol poisoning is believed to have killed 6 in Vang Vieng

(Newser) - Eight staffers at a hostel in Laos have been detained after a rash of tourist deaths and illnesses last week. Two 19-year-old Australians, two Danish women in their early 20s, and a 57-year-old American man all died of suspected methanol poisoning during their stay at the Nana Backpacker Hostel in...

Tourist Deaths in Laos Are Part of a Bigger Problem

Diplomats say poisonings from tainted alcohol in Southeast Asia are common but awareness is low

(Newser) - A second Australian teenager has died from suspected methanol poisoning after drinking tainted alcohol in Laos, bringing the death toll to six in what is believed to be a mass poisoning. The deaths have drawn attention to the longstanding problem of tainted alcohol in Southeast Asia, where despite warnings from...

4 Tourists Die in Laos
Fifth Tourist Dies in Laos
updated
Nov 21, 2024 4:15 PM CST

Fifth Tourist Dies in Laos

American, Australian, Danish, UK tourists apparently drank tainted cocktails

(Newser) - Another tourist has died in Laos in what authorities suspect is a mass poisoning. The UK's Foreign Office reported Thursday that Simone White, a 28-year-old London lawyer, is the fifth person killed in the tourist town of Vang Vieng, the BBC reports. At least seven people are hospitalized, per...

21 Teens Who Died in Bar Ingested Toxic Form of Alcohol

Methanol investigated as possible cause of death in South African tragedy

(Newser) - The toxic chemical methanol has been identified as a possible cause of the deaths of 21 teenagers at a bar in the South African city of East London last month, per the AP . Methanol was found in all of their bodies, and investigations are continuing to determine whether the levels...

CDC: People Are Dying From Drinking Hand Sanitizer

Others have been blinded from ingesting products made with methanol

(Newser) - Using alcohol-based hand sanitizer when soap and water are not available can help protect you from the coronavirus—but drinking it can leave you blind or dead, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns. The CDC said that in Arizona and New Mexico in May...

FDA: These Hand Sanitizers Have Possibly Fatal Ingredient

These products apparently contain methanol, which you don't want to absorb or ingest

(Newser) - Using hand sanitizer? Might be good to check that label. The Food and Drug Administration is adding more hand sanitizers to its list of products to avoid because they contain methanol—which is toxic when ingested or absorbed by the skin, USA Today reports. The FDA is telling Americans to...

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