METHANOL Mass Poisoning? 49 Cambodians die, 318 hospitalized by home-made rice wine

Kind of scares me to have a drink or two especially when abroad, not that USA brands or home beer brews are totally safe from methanol either.

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 14 -- At least 49 Cambodians died and 318 others were hospitalized by drinking home-made rice wine, a health official said on Tuesday.

"Among those who had died, there were 31 men and 18 women, while there were 276 men and 42 were women among those who were hospitalized."

Sok Touch said that the incidents occurred in seven provinces and a city including Pursat, Siem Reap, Kratie, Kompong Cham, Prey Veng, Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh.

It was believed that the wine was contaminated with methanol.

Wonder who goes wrong in the brew process that produces more toxic, blinding methanol instead of ethanol?

Another incident, with 143 deaths in india a couple months ago:

Originally posted by ignant
Sok Touch said that the incidents occurred in seven provinces and a city including Pursat, Siem Reap, Kratie, Kompong Cham, Prey Veng, Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh.

I believe there is something the Govt. isn't saying and they don't want discovered here.

How can a home-made rice wine kill people in 7 provinces? That would be one hell of a batch of home brew to have that many spread out so far fall sick or die.

I think it may be the ingredients that is the culprit here. Something that was passed and sold as safe.

Peace

reply to post by ignant


The methanol had to have been added to the wine. The fermentation of rice will only produce ethanol. The commentator in the video even mentioned the wine was "spiked".

See ya,
Milt

reply to post by ignant


Wood liquor is deadly but makes a great racing fuel

reply to post by BenReclused


Yes, methanol is not produced and cannot be produced by fermentaion, which is the process that creates wine.Methanol is a by product of distilling alcohol and had to have been added into the wine making this a very nasty mass murder case

Seems some d need a nanny state after all.
Whoever made that batch maybe shouldn't have.
I generally don't agree with the nanny state but every once in awhile an idiot makes innocents his unintended victims.

reply to post by LongbottomLeaf


Yep! Methanol worked pretty damn good in my model aircraft too. Isopropyl wasn't worth a damn though.

See ya,
Milt

reply to post by BenReclused


I bet! My brother has a metal shop. He made me a "ripper" its a mini chainsaw knife thing from a video game, It uses a model airplane engine I use methanol in that and man does it rip

Originally posted by jude11

Originally posted by ignant
Sok Touch said that the incidents occurred in seven provinces and a city including Pursat, Siem Reap, Kratie, Kompong Cham, Prey Veng, Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh.

I believe there is something the Govt. isn't saying and they don't want discovered here.

How can a home-made rice wine kill people in 7 provinces? That would be one hell of a batch of home brew to have that many spread out so far fall sick or die.

I think it may be the ingredients that is the culprit here. Something that was passed and sold as safe.

Peace

Oh, wow. I had no idea methanol was "impossible" product of rice fermentation.

So, the implications are mind blowing. It's a conspiracy! Someone, by the downplayed gesture of "spiking" the batch for whatever reason, nevertheless ADDED the poison methanol, and in so doing, killed all these people across 7 provinces

reply to post by ignant


Methanol formed during fermentation is derived from pectin, a compound in fruits. Pectin contains methyl esters of galactose, a sugar. Other enzymes introduced by microorganisms and not related to fermentation, break the pectin to produce methanol. This is only in low concentration of a few parts per million and is nothing to worry about.

Methanol poisoning was common during prohibition when people were using cheap, readily available methanol [wood alcohol] to fortify bathtub gin. It appears that they are still using methanol to fortify bad wine.

i'm sorry, but i don't think this is possible.

the ONLY way i could see this happening is if the specific kind of yeast they use creates much higher amounts of methanol than ethanol. perhaps it could also be the rice, as certain grains cause more methanol.

you see, wine isn't distilled, and methanol is only removed though distillation. i've never heard of it being removed from wine because there isn't much to be removed.

methanol has a lower boiling point than both ethanol and water, which means when you distill an alcohol containing substance, it will be the first thing you get. this increases the amount of methanol in distilled spirits to unsafe levels if it isn't removed.

it's too diluted in wine to really do anything, otherwise home brewers would be going blind all over the world.

Originally posted by ignant
Oh, wow. I had no idea methanol was "impossible" product of rice fermentation.

So, the implications are mind blowing. It's a conspiracy! Someone, by the downplayed gesture of "spiking" the batch for whatever reason, nevertheless ADDED the poison methanol, and in so doing, killed all these people across 7 provinces

I suspect someone intentionally added methanol to the wine, but didn't intend to kill anyone. Probably watered down the wine to make it go further, then added methanol to bring the alcohol content up to par. I'd chalk it up to ignorance of the difference between methanol and ethanol.

reply to post by WaitandWatch

Yes, methanol is not produced and cannot be produced by fermentaion, which is the process that creates wine.Methanol is a by product of distilling alcohol and had to have been added into the wine making this a very nasty mass murder case

you are completely 100% wrong. methanol IS produced by fermentation. distilling alcohol is possible because methanol/ethanol have a lower boiling point than water so they boil off first. the vapor then exits through a tube-like apparatus, then it is cooled down and condenses into liquor. this process doesn't change the nature of the chemicals you put in, it merely concentrates the alcohol.

methanol is not created during distillation, but by chemicals that the yeast introduce to break down the sugars.