Push Admin

Methanol-laced drinks claim dozens of lives in Peru

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Photo by Raghav Bhasin on Unsplash" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/overseas/10/18/methanol-unsplash.jpg"/><figcaption><em>Photo by Raghav Bhasin on Unsplash</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>LIMA, Peru - At least 54 people have died in Peru over the past month after they consumed bottled drinks containing methanol, a toxic form of alcohol, the South American country&#x27;s health ministry said Monday.</p><p>The ministry said it had registered 117 cases of methanol poisoning since mid-September. Of those, 54 people died.</p><p>&quot;It is the highest figure (of methanol poisoning) in recent years,&quot; the head of the ministry&#x27;s National Center for Epidemiology, Eduardo Ortega, told AFP.</p><p>On Sunday, the ministry had urged people not to consume vodka/passion fruit- and pina colada-flavored drinks sold in two-liter plastic bottles under the name Punto D Oro after tests revealed them to contain methanol, an ingredient in windshield washer fluid and antifreeze.</p><p>It warned the drinks posed &quot;serious damage to the health of people who ingest them.&quot;</p><p>This came after dozens of intoxication cases were reported at hospitals in and around the capital Lima.</p><p>According to the website of the Methanol Institute, a global trade association, &quot;unscrupulous enterprises or individual&quot; sometimes deliberately add methanol to alcoholic drinks as a cheaper alternative to safe and consumable ethanol.</p><p>Poisoning can also occur through improper brewing of homemade alcohol, it said.</p><p>Symptoms of methanol poisoning can include: abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, breathing difficulty, blindness, blurred vision, seizures and comas, according to the institute. Drinking as little as 25 ml (0.8 ounces) can be fatal.</p><div><strong>cm/ljc/dga/mlr/des</strong></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div>

At least 54 people have died in Peru over the past month after they consumed bottled drinks containing methanol, a toxic form of alcohol, the South American country's health ministry said Monday.