A British lawyer is among six people to have died in a suspected mass methanol poisoning in Laos.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it was “supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Laos, and we are in contact with the local authorities”.
Simone White, 28, from Orpington, south-east London, was among a number of people taken to hospital after the incident in the backpacking town of Vang Vieng last week.
Other British tourists are among those being treated in hospital after allegedly being served alcoholic drinks containing deadly methanol. Reports suggest as many as six British nationals have required treatment.
The FCDO said in a statement: “We are providing consular assistance to British nationals and their families.”
White was a lawyer with the global law firm Squire Patton Boggs, whose work involves general commercial matters and contentious and non-contentious intellectual property law issues, according to the firm’s website.
Two Australian teenagers, an American, and two Danish tourists aged 19 and 20 have also died after the incident in Vang Vieng, a town particularly popular among backpackers in search of partying and adventure sports.
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 said Jones died from “brain swelling due to high levels of methanol found in her system”.
The death of her friend Holly Bowles, also 19, was confirmed by her father on Friday (local time). They had been staying at a hostel in Vang Vieng.
The US state department said an American had died, and Denmark’s foreign ministry said two of its citizens had 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 said one of its citizens was unwell in Laos and could be a victim of methanol poisoning.
Methanol is toxic when consumed by humans. The incident has 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 sent to Thailand and verified there, said Prof Knut Erik Hovda, who advises Médecins Sans Frontières on a project to combat methanol poisoning.
Hovda said that based on the clinical features and histories of the people 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.”
Asia has the highest prevalence of methanol poisoning globally, with incidents in Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines, according to MSF data.
Alastair Hay, a professor of environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds, said the risk from methanol poisoning was 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 said. “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.”
Additional reporting by Kate Lamb
• This article was amended on 22 November 2024. A previous version incorrectly stated that ethanol was not toxic to humans. It is, however, much less toxic than methanol.
