Methanol is sometimes used to dilute real alcohol in Indonesia (Image via safetravel.govt.nz)
Brilio.net/en - A holiday in paradise can quickly turn into a living nightmare for tourists visiting Indonesia. As news breaks that Australian tourist Jen Neilsen from Perth is currently hospitalized with methanol poisoning, and a hefty bill of $60,000 for an emergency surgery to remove a part of her pancreas, its important to revisit the dark secret that lingers over tourist hubs like Bali, Gili Trawangan and Lombok.
In those tourist hubs, the risk is very real.
Jen Neilsen is hospitalized after serious complications with the bootleg alcohol, arak. (Image via perthnow)
Indonesia has a problem with bootleg alcohol. According to the International Federation of Spirit Producers, 50 percent of spirits in Indonesia are counterfeit. Serious complications, blindness and in some cases, death can occur from consumption of the bootleg booze.
This backyard moonshine-gone-wrong is more common than we expect. Bootleggers bottle the methanol and sell it to bars as branded alcohol, even recycling bottles and resealing them. And tourists looking for a cheap alternative arent the only ones suffering from methanol poisoning. While foreign deaths and tragedies make the headlines, locals are suffering at a staggering rate.
So what is it?
Methanol is closely related to ethanol, which is found in alcohol, but its much more lethal. The byproduct of poorly-produced ethanol has no taste or smell, making it a potent silent killer. As little as 10 milliliters (two teaspoons) can cause blindness while ingesting 30ml can kill.
The body is able to handle small doses of methanol, as it occurs naturally in our bodies. The liver converts methanol into formaldehyde, which then becomes formic acid and is removed from the body either through urine or as carbon dioxide. But there is a limit to how much methanol the body can process. If theres an excess of formaldehyde it can become toxic, leading to symptoms such as blurred vision, headaches, nausea and respiratory problems. If not properly treated, the symptoms can worsen to include organ failure, brain damage or death.
With the formaldehyde building up, its as if the body is being embalmed from the inside out, according to Dr. Lanang Suartana Putra from Balis Sanglah Hospital.
In many cases, the early symptoms go unnoticed or are mistaken for a hangover. Headaches, nausea and blurry vision all top the list, that is if infected people are even awake. For the most part, the symptoms occur 12 - 14 hours after consumption, which usually means the person who ingested arak is sleeping soundly and unaware of the struggle in the body.
How to treat it?
If your hangover feels worse than usual, dont ignore it. A coconut wont cure this one. But ironically enough, ethanol will.
In what may seem a twist of fate, pure ethanol inhibits the reaction of methanol. Its all fancy organic chemistry but what happens is competitive inhibition; the ethanol competes with and eventually slows down the methanol reaction by using all the available dehydrogenase enzymes in your body allowing it to excrete the methanol via urine.
A high dose of alcohol, such as whiskey or vodka, or any other spirit with an alcohol content of at least 30% will delay the methanol processing. "The liver will process the ethanol first, so this buys you time to get to hospital to commence dialysis," says Dom LaVigne from the Methanol Institute. The recommended initial dose for a 70-kilogram person is 125 ml, followed by an hourly dose of 30 ml.
Liam Davies was just 19 and on holiday for NYE when he was poisoned with methanol. (Image via smh)
Its difficult to catch it in time, and in some cases even the hospitals misdiagnose methanol poisoning, as happened to Liam Davies died after the hospital in Lombok mistook his dire conditions for tetanus, and then a brain aneurysm. When he returned to Perth, he was diagnosed within 10 minutes.
Besides keeping a stash of legitimate alcohol around for worst case scenarios, exercise good judgement when boozing in Indonesia. Bottled beer is a safer bet and listen to your body.
Other than that, keep having fun!
(brl/red)
