getting methanol education into Scottish schools - in the meantime please share this with your young people going on holiday/travelling and keep them safe

[highlandcoo]

I'm part of a group of bereaved relatives and friends working to spread awareness about the dangers of methanol poisoning.

It's so much more widespread than is realised. As well as places like Vietnam, Laos and Indonesia, it's now happening in Turkey, Greece and, most recently, we are hearing of cases in Magaluf.

Everyone knows about spiking; we need the dangers of methanol to be equally understood.

We have succeeded in getting statutory education about this added to the curriculum in England and Wales at an age when pupils are thinking about gap years and holidays with friends, and I want the same for school students in Scotland.

I am trying hard to persuade the Scottish government that this is vitally important before we have further tragedies, and encouraging friends and colleagues to write to their MSP to press for change.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/l0057d41/man-tells-bbc-how-he-was-poisoned-by-drinks-on-holiday

Sincere apologies for your loss. Thank you for sharing. I have emailed my msp. Could I ask, what is it that people can do to avoid the dangers?

Firstly, to be 100% safe avoid spirits in many countries. No shots, buckets or cocktails. They may have had industrial alcohol (methanol) added and it's impossible to tell. If you want to drink spirits on holiday, buy them at Duty Free in the UK and have a drink in your room before you go out, then stick to beer.
But crucially, also know the symptoms of methanol poisoning. It feels initially like a very bad hangover, with dizziness, unsteadiness, maybe vomiting, and fatigue. But while a bad hangover will start to improve the next day, with methanol poisoning symptoms will worsen and you may start to experience visual disturbances and shortness of breath. You MUST NOT go to bed and try to sleep it off. Seek medical help because there is an antidote and if administered in time you can save your eyesight and your life.

Thank you for asking @Namechange4466543 and many thanks for emailing your MSP. I really appreciate it.

Thanks very much for this. Really useful to know. Could I ask, what is the antidote, is it something teans could take with them just in case and perhaps administer for a friend if the worst were to happen or do they need to get to a hospital? All the best with your campaign, its definitely an issue which iv read more and more about now that you draw it to my attention.

The antidote is fomezipole, unfortunately not available in all hospitals abroad. Hospitals might treat methanol poisoning with dialysis, or - I know it sounds bizarre - a makeshift antidote is ethanol itself (alcohol for human consumption) but there is no way I would want to advise young people to count on this as a solution. They would be well advised to avoid spirit-based drinks as described above and stick to beer.

Another useful bit of advice is to have insurance documents printed out, not on their phone. Have them in a front pocket of their rucksack etc, get all friends to do the same, and everyone will know how to access them in an emergency. If they are ill and confused, and especially if suffering visual disturbances, it will be hard to navigate details on a phone. And unfortunately many hospitals will refuse to treat tourists until they see their insurance documents.

Thanks for the reminder I’d seen the story but not realised it was more than isolated cases.

@Fentyfan yes exactly. So much more widespread than is realised. That's what we want to get across.

More than 130 people dead in Turkey just this year. A young woman in Zante returning from holiday blind. 17 young lads, also in Zante, hospitalised on a club 18-30 holiday; fortunately all survived. An incident in Magaluf just last month, and the hospital in Palma reports that they are seeing a number of cases recently.

There has even been fake Glen's vodka on sale in Glasgow. Contaminated with isopropyl rather than methanol however the danger is the same; blindness, neurological damage or death.

It's deeply concerning. Anyone who is willing to email their MSP about it would really help our campaign to get education into schools asap.

I will do email my MSP too. That’s very sad and I’m sorry for your loss.

Thank you for sharing- I had no idea. Will contact my msp. Do you think it's worth contacting dc's school to see if they can offer an awareness campaign or put in the school bulletin?

@Toohightoofar thank you so much for contacting your MSP. I have a lot of friends doing this and it's definitely making a difference. There's already one MSP putting a formal question to the government and another planning to put a motion before Parliament so it's all progress.

As far as the school, any accurate information they can get to the pupils would be worthwhile. We are in the process of making a film to offer schools but it's not ready yet. For now, you can go to our website:

methanolawareness.com

where there's good information about the dangers. We will add to and improve the website as time goes on.

There was fake Glens vodka being sold in Glasgow just a few weeks ago, contaminated not with methanol but with isopropyl. Technically different but also with lethal effects. Terrifying.

https://metro.co.uk/2025/07/26/health-warning-counterfeit-vodka-made-medical-grade-alcohol-23756741/

I'm so sorry for your loss @highlandcoo and this sounds like a really good campaign.

Also hitting home for me as my 9 friends and I had a 4 day holiday in Palma at the beginning of this month to celebrate everyone's 40ths and one of the nights we went to the Magaluf strip, as a kind of joke, tbh as none of us had ever done an 18-30 holiday when we had been that age, but after a fair few cocktails at the hotel bar, decided to walk to the strip. It's terrifying to think the drinks we had there could have been spiked with this stuff!

@Well1mBack yes I know; it feels very close to home and this is what we want people to realise. I'm glad you and your friends had fun and were OK.

I'm finding it hard to fathom why the Scottish government are dragging their heels on agreeing to us getting an accurate, professionally produced (and free!) short film about this in front of school students. It could only do good.

The government argue that advice is available on the FCDO website. In fact, that doesn''t cover all countries affected, isn't comprehensive enough and realistically how many 18-year-olds think to consult it before jumping on a plane to Mallorca or Zante for a week with their mates?

If you feel like firing off a quick email to your local MSP that would be really helpful.

bumping this

is there a way to test drinks @highlandcoo

You need a gas chromatograph for methanol analysis, that's not something that you can run in a bar or similar, they are also expensive, I'd say a minimum of £20K for a very basic one. There's a chemical test as well but it involves several steps, would be difficult to do outside a lab.
Pure or highly concentrated methanol has a distinct smell but at the low concentrations you find in contaminated drinks and are dangerous, no chance.

@JackJarvisEsq @Igneococcus yes, this is a question we're being asked a lot.

There was talk of testing strips a while back, but these were found to be impractical as too slow to give a result; also unrealistically expensive. So we are monitoring this but for the moment no; no such thing is available.

An expert has developed a thumb-prick test to identify methanol in the blood but this is a diagnostic tool, not a precautionary measure. And still requires funding to produce in numbers.

Avoidance is the best tactic for now. Don't drink spirits unless you have brought them from the UK, drink beer instead.