Summary

Holly Bowles, a 19-year-old Australian, has become the sixth foreign tourist to die from suspected methanol poisoning in Laos.

She and her friend Bianca Jones fell ill in Vang Vieng, a popular backpacking town, after reportedly consuming tainted alcohol, which can be lethal even in small amounts.

Other victims include a British lawyer, an American man, and two Danish women. Methanol, often found in bootleg or home-distilled alcohol, is believed to be the cause.

Authorities are investigating, with the manager of the hostel where free shots were served detained for questioning.

  • fibojoly@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    Do you realise how fucking regulated alcohol making and indeed, any sort of food or beverage making is in Europe? This sort of shit only happens in countries where you have a deadly mixture of ignorance, poverty and corruption.

    Farmers in rural France know you throw away the first part of the moonshine because it’s the part that makes you go blind, for example. And it’s precisely to prevent any sort of accidental mishaps they ended up forbidding the making of it anyway (it used to be allowed for cattle farmers, iirc). Although I believe they rolled back that one, what with the explosion of microbreweriea and such. Also if it’s legal can tax it.

    • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      Idk in hungary there was basically no regulation(or anything they followed anyway). Of course hungary is a shithole so this may be just a result of that.