Doctors reveal surprising treatment for methanol poisoning in wake of 6 tourists deaths in Laos

Doctors have revealed a common treatment to slow the effects of methanol poisoning.It comes after six people died following a mass methanol poisoning in Laos, including Melbourne teenagers Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles.Methanol – which is a chemical building block for hundreds of everyday products, including plastics, paints, car parts and construction materials – is often deliberately added to alcoholic beverages as a cheaper alternative to ethanol, the normal alcohol used in alcoholic drinks.According to the Methanol Institute, this usually occurs in countries and territories where taxes on ethanol are seen as too high — such as Indonesia’s Bali and other Southeast Asian countries.The Institute says methanol poisoning can be treated successfully if diagnosed within 10-30 hours of ingestion and recommends seeking medical attention at hospital with dialysis equipment.Surprisingly, doctors have revealed that alcohol can help those suffering from methanol poisoning.Alcohol works because the body will prioritize metabolising ethanol over methanol.Methanol becomes dangerous when it is processed by the liver, this process releases toxic chemicals into the body causing organ damage.Morning Report and Evening Update: Your source for today's top stories Please provide a valid email address.

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So by drinking alcohol, methanol poisoning can be delayed and the body has time to get rid of the methanol safely through sweat or in urine.In more extreme cases a patient can be kept “mildly drunk” while other treatments such as dialysis, which cleans the blood, are used.Some patients can be kept drunk for up to a week while medics treat methanol poisoning.Professor Alastair Hay, an expert in environmental toxicology at the University of Leeds, said alcohol works to stop methanol from being processed by the liver, ...