It's not that often that the HSE has to issue a serious public health alert but this one is super important for any young person, especially. A unnamed person from Dublin is fighting for their life after drinking what they thought was vodka but instead was deadly methanol. According to the HSE methanol public health alert, the vodka bottle "was bought from an unrecognised vendor in the Ballymun area".
The Gardaí in Ballymun and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland are investigating the incident, and the HSE is issuing the following advice to the public:
- Only buy alcohol from a recognised shop, off-license or licensed premises.
- If you bought alcohol from an unrecognised seller, do not drink it. Hand the bottle in to your local garda station to help in the investigation of this incident.
- If you recently drank alcohol from a bottle bought on the street and are concerned about symptoms, seek urgent medical advice.
For those of you who have never heard of methanol before, it's a highly toxic chemical, typically uses in solvents and anti-freeze, but definitely shouldn't be in alcohol.
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People who drink methanol may not see symptoms for 12 -24 hours and they can include headache, confusion, dizziness, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and rapid breathing.
Methanol contamination is common in southeast Asia, where there've been a load of cases of tourists in Bali who have been poisoned, with some even ending in blindness or death.
