A British lawyer has been named as the fifth person to die in a suspected mass methanol poisoning in Laos.
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) have said they are supporting the family of British lawyer Simone White, 28, from Orpington in Kent who has died in the incident.
Other British tourists are among those being treated in hospital after allegedly being served alcoholic drinks containing deadly methanol in a popular backpacking town in Laos where four people have died and about a dozen others have been taken ill.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said in a statement: “We are providing consular assistance to British nationals and their families and are in contact with the local authorities following an incident in Laos.”
An Australian teenager, an American, and two Danish tourists aged 19 and 20 have died after the incident in Vang Vieng, a town particularly popular among backpackers in search of partying and adventure sports.
The FCDO has not confirmed how many British nationals have been affected, but reports suggested as many as six have required treatment.
White was a lawyer with the global law firm Squire Patton Boggs, whose work involved general commercial matters, and contentious and non-contentious intellectual property law issues, according to the firm’s website.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told parliament that 19-year-old Bianca Jones from Melbourne died after being evacuated from Vang Vieng for treatment in a Thai hospital.
Thai authorities later confirmed that Jones had died from “brain swelling due to high levels of methanol found in her system”. Her friend Holly Bowles, also 19, remains in hospital in Thailand. They had been staying at a hostel in the central Laos town, which is popular with young westerners backpacking across south-east Asia on the Banana Pancake Trail that spans Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Australia said “several foreign nationals” had also been victims of methanol poisoning. The US state department confirmed that an American had died and Denmark’s foreign ministry said two of its citizens also died in “the incident in Laos” but neither commented directly on a link to the methanol poisoning that killed Jones. New Zealand’s foreign ministry has said that one of its citizens was also unwell in Laos and could be a victim of methanol poisoning.
Unlike ethanol, the key component of alcoholic drinks, methanol is toxic to humans. The cases have highlighted the dangers of methanol poisoning across south-east Asia, where it is a cultural norm to brew bootleg liquor from ingredients such as rice and sugarcane, sometimes mixed with methanol as a cheaper alternative to ethanol.
Authorities in Laos are investigating the incident. Samples were also sent to Thailand and verified there, said Prof Knut Erik Hovda, who advises Médecins Sans Frontières on their project to combat methanol poisoning.
Hovda said that based on the clinical features and histories of the Australians who were flown to Thailand for treatment, they had most likely been poisoned by methanol.
“The minute you have people drinking and getting sick in a high number and the symptoms start after a certain time, that is methanol until proven otherwise,” he said, “To me, this is no doubt caused by methanol.”
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Asia has the highest prevalence of methanol poisoning globally, with incidents in Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines, according to MSF data.
According to Professor Alastair Hay, Professor (Emeritus) of Environmental Toxicology at the University of Leeds, the risk from methanol poisoning is twofold.
“Methanol breaks down in the body to formaldehyde and then formic acid. The formic acid upsets the acid/base balance in blood and the major consequence is initially the effect on someone’s breathing,” he told PA News.
“There are effects on many other organs the kidney being one. The disturbance of acid/base balance and disrupted breathing will eventually affect the heart and it will stop functioning.
“Formaldehyde attacks nerves, particularly the optic nerve and blindness is a potential risk.
“Depending on the severity of poisoning, treatment may require dialysis to remove methanol from blood whilst at the same time keeping someone mildly drunk by administering ethanol.
“If the poisoning is not too severe, and only blood tests will determine this, ethanol alone may suffice.”
