Strange news report...

Stillhead · Post by **Stillhead** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 10:46 am

This was in my local paper Thursday Jan 4, 2007:

Poisonous drink kills 1, fells 2

Erica Bajer
The Chatham Daily News

A deadly holiday drink has claimed the life of an Erieau woman and left two others in serious condition in a London hospital.

Rebecca Demeurichy, 25, died Wednesday as a result of drinking punch police believe was contaminated with windshield-washer fluid, which contains methyl alcohol.

METHYL ALCOHOL

"We feel that methyl alcohol poisoning was a factor in the death," said Insp. George Flikweert, head of the Chatham-Kent police major crime unit.

"We're highly suspicious of the punch drink. We feel that it was stored temporarily in a container that was contaminated with methyl alcohol, therefore it is highly toxic."

Forensic officers were at 857 Mariners Rd. Wednesday, where the woman's body was found.

A post-mortem is scheduled for today in London.

Police are asking anyone who consumed punch or alcoholic beverages at the residence of Mary Lou and Hartley Vidler at 1300 Vidler Ave. or at Rebecca and Rob Demeurichy's home at 857 Mariners Rd. to go to an emergency room immediately.

Rob Demeurichy is one of the two people being treated in London, Flikweert confirmed.

He said it's hard to say how many people were exposed to the poisonous punch during Christmas and New Year's parties.

As of Wednesday afternoon, police had notified about 18 people who attended parties at the two homes.

Willi Kirenko, an ER nurse practitioner at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, said anyone who drank an alcoholic beverage at one of the homes and is suffering from any symptoms should visit the emergency room immediately for treatment.

Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing and vision changes.

"Those are all signs of this particular toxic ingestion," Kirenko said.

Flikweert noted Rebecca Demeurichy was ill Tuesday.

The nurse practitioner said she received calls Wednesday from more than 15 people concerned about the tainted punch.

However, she said none of them needed further assessment or treatment.

Kirenko said it doesn't take much methyl alcohol to make a person ill.

"Everyone who ingests this substance would get sick," she said.

An Erieau couple, who didn't wish to be identified, said the Demeurichys are well-known and well-liked in the area.

"They were very close and a happy couple," the woman said. "They were good neighbours."

The man said they often attend a holiday party at the Demeurichy house.

"It just happened that this year we had other plans," he said.

The woman said the couple, who were married about two years ago, were obviously happy and in love.

"They were always together, they were really close," she said.

"We were hoping for good news this year, that Becky was pregnant."

Another Erieau resident, who didn't give her name, said the incident is truly tragic.

She said the Demeurichys were "the nicest young couple."

DEADLY POISON

- Methanol is a clear, colourless liquid with a faint odour like alcohol. Also known as methyl alcohol, methyl hydrate, carbinol, wood alcohol or wood spirit.

- Methanol appears as an ingredient in many products, from industrial solvents to windshield-washer fluid and nail polish remover.

- Methanol tastes and smells much like common alcohol (ethanol) and has been used as a substitute in illegal alcoholic beverages.

- As little as four millilitres can cause blindness and 80 to 150 milliliters can be fatal.

- Symptoms include: an upset stomach and dizziness, with addition of pronounced vision problems. The most severely poisoned lose consciousness and die of respiratory or heart failure, those who do not die may stay in a coma for as long as a week and may be left blinded.

Source: Canada Safety Council

olcarguy · Post by **olcarguy** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:51 am

Heard last night on the news that one of the victims has lost their sight....tragic should never have happened.....My sympathy to their families.

dutch@home · Post by **dutch@home** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 2:32 pm

seen on tv:
house (docter) gave a person poisend with methanol normal likker and
the guy was okay.just drunk afterwards.
fiction? or fact?
dilluting the methanol?

duds2u · Post by **duds2u** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:01 pm

Fact. Ethonol is the antidote for ethanol

hornedrhodent · Post by **hornedrhodent** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 1:22 am

="duds2u"
Fact. Ethonol is the antidote for ethanol

Or perhaps ethanol is the treatment for methanol?

Just because you write 'fact' in front of a statement doesn't make it so!

The Chemist · Post by **The Chemist** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 1:12 pm

Not "strange" at all: methanol will kill you.

And, ethanol is indeed an older treatment for methanol. Methanol, itself, is not really that toxic, but is metabolized to formaldehyde and then formic acid, which is deadly. The first step in this metabolism is alcohol dehydrogenase. If you add ethanol, which is also metabolized by the same enzyme, it will compete with the methanol and allow more methanol to be excreted unmetabolized.

Current treatment focuses on managing the serum pH and folic acid treatment.

Stillhead · Post by **Stillhead** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:16 pm

Not "strange" at all: methanol will kill you.

Perhaps it will kill me, but I doubt your factual statement

.

40% = 40mL/100mL solution.

If 100mL of windshield washer fluid was left in a bottle when the punch was added, then the punch would be 4L (size of washer fluid bottle).

40mL/4000mL

1mL/100mL solution = 1%

If it takes ~100mL of pure MeOH to kill one, then the person who died must have drank 10L of this theoretical punch stored in a windshield washer fluid bottle. Since the bottle is not 10L to begin with, then this mistake must have happened at least three times, or the bottle contained even more than 100mL of washer fluid.

The punch then went on to make another blind, and another sick in the hostpital.

What is strange is not the completely obvious fact that methanol is poison, but it is that the supposed bottle that the punch was stored in probably did not have 100mL of washer fluid sitting in the bottom, and even if it did, that would not be enough to kill one if such an 'accident' occurred...

olcarguy · Post by **olcarguy** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:14 pm

I wonder if anyone in the investigating team even thinks of this.

masonjar · Post by **masonjar** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:54 pm

Stillhead, that is the first thing I thought about too when I saw this - so I'm glad you said something. I found the story very hard to believe...

If there were traces of methanol in a container, it would not have been nearly enough to do the damage that it did. And if there were an obviously noticable amount of substance (come on 100ml??) in the container - then who the hell would be stupid enough to put drinkable punch in there?

Something is seriously wrong with the story we are being told.

I think it's more likely that some buffoon spiked the punch with denatured alcohol - or tried to distill the denatured alcohol thinking it would be safe. To say that you stored it in a used container seems like a bullshit statement that someone would make when they made a big mistake and wanted to look innocent.

The Chemist · Post by **The Chemist** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 5:17 am

Stillhead wrote:
Not "strange" at all: methanol will kill you.
Perhaps it will kill me, but I doubt your factual statement .

Touche!! I certainly hope it doesn't!!!

I do note that methanol was said to have perhaps been involved in the death. This kind of points to why the "100 ml of pure methanol" argument isn't very important.

As I mentioned, methanol is not really very toxic. What kills you is the acidosis caused by the metabolic degradation of the methanol to formic acid. Now, if you're in perfect health, maybe it takes 100 ml to kill you. But, if you have some other condition, and are already slightly acidotic, say, you're on the Atkins diet, it won't take nearly that much.