Methanol in blood of teens who died in South African tavern

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — 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. Methanol was found in all of their bodies and investigations are continuing to determine whether the levels of the toxic chemical were enough to have killed them.

“Methanol has been detected in all the 21 individuals that were there, however there is still progressive analysis of the quantitative levels of methanol and whether it could have been the final cause of death,” Dr. Litha Matiwane, Eastern Cape provincial deputy director for clinical service, said at press conference in East London Tuesday. Authorities are still awaiting the conclusive results which are being conducted at a laboratory in the city of Cape Town, he said.

Methanol is a toxic form of alcohol that is used industrially as a solvent, pesticide or an alternative source of fuel. It is not used in the production of alcohol sold for human consumption. It is yet not known how the youngsters ingested the methanol. Alcohol poisoning and inhalation of carbon monoxide have both been ruled out as possible causes of death although traces of both were detected in the bodies of all 21 victims, said Matiwane.

The teenagers died at the Enyobeni tavern in East London’s Scenery Park township in the early hours of June 26, shocking the country and resulting in several investigations by the police and liquor license authorities. Many of the teens were found dead in the tavern, with their bodies strewn across tables and couches while others died after they were rushed to nearby health facilities.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-bar-teen-deaths-menthanol-f953297cd8fdb1fa80943f3bff30e15a

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Someone may have "cut" methanol into whatever they were drinking (i.e., diluting some form of distilled branded ethanol, which is what is used for typical alcoholic beverages). Could be some bulk bottles of stuff like vodka the bar bought that was adulterated.

Sadly, methanol has often been substituted for ethanol in cheap hand sanitizers being sold by unscrupulous vendors too and there have been many many recalls of those sanitizers over the past couple years because of the toxicity. It has a different smell from ethanol or isopropanol (rubbing alcohol), where although it is sortof sweet-smelling like ethanol, it's not astringent-smelling like isopropyl alcohol, so it might not be easy to detect taste and/or smell) small amounts diluted in a "drink".

[cyndensco]

1. Thanks for posting.

I have been checking for updates.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. You're welcome

This is just sad.

[jmowreader]

3. Keep looking, this probably isn't it

Methanol itself isn’t toxic. What IS toxic is formic acid, methanol’s second-order metabolite. It takes from 12 to 24 hours for your body to produce enough formic acid to kill you…and when it does it makes you drift off to sleep and not wake up. Some of these kids were ported to have died that way…but others died while they were dancing. But there’s no way they were in there half the day.

Another thing to consider: all booze has methanol in it so I’d expect to see this. What protects you is the ethanol. The human enzyme that breaks down methanol and ethylene glycol prefers to work on ethanol, and since you have only so much of it you’ll wind up urinating the methanol unprocessed.

Methanol in their blood could mean nothing more than that they got seriously trashed…which you’d do if you were at an illegal rave.

I’m inclined to think whatever killed them was in pill form. My first thought is MDMA.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. "Methanol itself isn't toxic"

Here is a link to the MSDS Sheet for Methanol - https://fscimage.fishersci.com/msds/14280.htm

Material Safety Data Sheet
Methanol

ACC# 14280

(snip)

Section 3 - Hazards Identification

EMERGENCY OVERVIEW

Appearance: APHA: 10 max clear liquid. Flash Point: 12 deg C.
Danger! Poison! May be fatal or cause blindness if swallowed. Vapor harmful. Flammable liquid and vapor. Harmful if swallowed, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin. Causes eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritation. May cause central nervous system depression. Cannot be made non-poisonous.
Target Organs: Eyes, nervous system, optic nerve.


Potential Health Effects
Eye: May cause painful sensitization to light. Methanol is a mild to moderate eye irritant. Inhalation, ingestion or skin absorption of methanol can cause significant disturbances in vision, including blindness.
Skin: Causes moderate skin irritation. May be absorbed through the skin in harmful amounts. Prolonged and/or repeated contact may cause defatting of the skin and dermatitis. Methanol can be absorbed through the skin, producing systemic effects that include visual disturbances.
Ingestion: May be fatal or cause blindness if swallowed. Aspiration hazard. Cannot be made non-poisonous. May cause gastrointestinal irritation with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. May cause systemic toxicity with acidosis. May cause central nervous system depression, characterized by excitement, followed by headache, dizziness, drowsiness, and nausea. Advanced stages may cause collapse, unconsciousness, coma and possible death due to respiratory failure. May cause cardiopulmonary system effects.
Inhalation: Methanol is toxic and can very readily form extremely high vapor concentrations at room temperature. Inhalation is the most common route of occupational exposure. At first, methanol causes CNS depression with nausea, headache, vomiting, dizziness and incoordination. A time period with no obvious symptoms follows (typically 8-24 hrs). This latent period is followed by metabolic acidosis and severe visual effects which may include reduced reactivity and/or increased sensitivity to light, blurred, doubl and/or snowy vision, and blindness. Depending on the severity of exposure and the promptness of treatment, survivors may recover completely or may have permanent blindness, vision disturbances and/or nervous system effects.
Chronic: Prolonged or repeated skin contact may cause dermatitis. Chronic exposure may cause effects similar to those of acute exposure. Methanol is only very slowly eliminated from the body. Because of this slow elimination, methanol should be regarded as a cumulative poison. Though a single exposure may cause no effect, daily exposures may result in the accumulation of a harmful amount. Methanol has produced fetotoxicity in rats and teratogenicity in mice exposed by inhalation to high concentrations that did not produce significant maternal toxicity.

(snip)

And as a note, I am a retired ACS-certified Chemist.

[NickB79]

6. Isn't this the part that kills?

And the part the poster you replied to covered?

A time period with no obvious symptoms follows (typically 8-24 hrs). This latent period is followed by metabolic acidosis and severe visual effects which may include reduced reactivity and/or increased sensitivity to light, blurred, doubl and/or snowy vision, and blindness. Depending on the severity of exposure and the promptness of treatment, survivors may recover completely or may have permanent blindness, vision disturbances and/or nervous system effects

Acidosis from formic acid accumulation?

[BumRushDaShow]

7. In the lab

We worked with methanol in the hood.

It has a low boiling point and evaporates quickly so the fumes can be inhaled and possible cause damage or even be lethal in certain concentrations.

The point of the Materials Safety Data Sheet is to describe substances that are HAZARDS if handled incorrecctly. It doesn't matter what biochemical reactions go on, just that the substance is considered TOXIC and can cause harm.

Botox is considered a "toxin" but is administered under special medical controls.

[speak easy]

10. Methanol Toxicity - the National Library of Medicine

A potentially lethal dose of methanol is approximately 30 to 240 mL or 1 gram per kilogram. Permanent visual damage may occur with minimum ingestion of 30 mL of methanol. The parent compound, methanol, accounts for the increased osmolality. Unlike most other alcohols, methanol itself is not inebriating, and this may be related to its lower molecular weight. Formic acid is the primary toxic metabolite that accounts for the associated anion gap metabolic acidosis and end-organ damage. Therefore, as methanol is metabolized, the osmolar gap decreases, and the anion gap increases. The development of an anion gap metabolic acidosis associated with formate accumulation is multifactorial, due to the accumulation of organic acids that are not easily eliminated (for example, formic acid and formate), and the disruption of oxidative phosphorylation due to formate’s inhibition of cytochrome oxidase. Formate’s hindrance of mitochondrial respiration can also cause a degree of lactatemia, which can enhance formate’s ability to cross the blood-brain barrier as formic acid. Lactate is also elevated secondary to enhanced shunting of pyruvate to lactate from the increased NADH/NAD ratio associated with alcohol metabolism. End organ damage and retinal toxicity are primarily due to formic acid’s oxidative stress. Also reported is parkinsonian-like symptomatology associated with observed basal ganglia lesions, particularly in the putamen and globus pallidus. This is potentially due to the parent compound, methanol.

Patients who present within the first 12 to 24 hours following ingestion may appear normal, and this is described as the latent period. Nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain subsequently ensue, followed by central nervous system (CNS) depression and hyperventilation as metabolic acidosis occurs. Ocular symptoms associated with retinal toxicity are often evident in the form of blurry vision, decreased visual acuity, photophobia, and “halo vision.” These symptoms are associated with physical exam findings that may include papilledema, optic disc hyperemia, and pupillary defects on fundoscopic evaluation. Symptoms associated with basal ganglia toxicity are not detectable early on due to mental status depression and the acuity of illness. Without treatment, patients may progress to coma, respiratory or circulatory failure, and death.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482121/

[BumRushDaShow]

11. Again - regardless of how it manifests in the body - eyes, lungs, other organs

it is listed as TOXIC substance.

A potentially lethal dose of methanol is approximately 30 to 240 mL or 1 gram per kilogram. Permanent visual damage may occur with minimum ingestion of 30 mL of methanol.

[speak easy]

12. The question posed by the OP is whether methanol (on site) could have killed those kids.

Given there is a latency period of 12-24 hrs before organ damage is manefest, the answer is no.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. The person I was replying to asserted this

Methanol itself isn’t toxic.

And THAT is what I was replying to. Methanol is considered a TOXIC substance.

Now in the case of the OP, there is all sorts of speculation about the source of traces of that alcohol in the blood of a number of the victims and how it may have gotten there. So they will continue to investigate and test to determine this.

In the meantime, just based on past problems with shady sellers swapping methanol for ethanol in a number of products (most talked about in the U.S. at the moment being hand sanitizers that have been recalled due to the presence of methanol (and even benzene) -

https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-updates-hand-sanitizers-consumers-should-not-use

it is not out of the question that the same might have happened with bottles of (drinking) alcohol inadvertently or purposely adulterated.

[Roc2020]

5. very strange case

can't be coincidence they all had methanol in their blood. Hope more answers come out.

[machoneman]

8. Easy: Some idiot thought than methanol alcohol and spiked the drinks, seemingly safe...NOT!

[Shermann]

9. Probably more like methanol toxicity from improperly distilled ethanol nt