A class from Simon Fraser University travelling in Bali are the latest people to come across a potentially lethal problem that is ravaging Indonesia: methanol poisoning.
Some students taking the 12-credit international studies course fell ill after drinking contaminated liquor, and now the Burnaby-based university is looking into what went wrong.
“We are investigating,” said Scott McLean, SFU’s acting director of public affairs. “Obviously we’re concerned. We’re received differing accounts. No SFU funds can be spent on alcohol.”
McLean said the 26 students, led by Prof. Michael Howard, are all accounted for. He couldn’t say how many fell ill.
The students, on a two-month tour through Indonesia and Vietnam entitled Southeast Asia: International Studies 2013, can count themselves lucky – Indonesians and tourists are being blinded or even dying from drinks laced with methanol.
The situation is so grave that Australia has issued a travel advisory for Indonesia-bound tourists. Bali, nearby Lombok and the Gili Islands have all recorded injuries and deaths.
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Australian Liam Davies, 19, died just two weeks ago in Lombok, and reports in the Australian press paint a disturbing picture of bars and distilleries serving up methanol-laced drinks with lethal results.
The Australian Medical Association also has concerns, recently advising travellers to Bali to stick to bottled beer and avoid spirits altogether.
Indonesia is devoutly Muslim and discourages alcohol consumption with a 380-per-cent import tax on liquor, providing a lucrative incentive for a bootleg industry selling moonshine-like arak that can lead to serious injury or even death.
Benjamin Browning, who runs a bar in the capital Jakarta, told the Sydney Morning Herald that outlaw booze is often substituted for the real thing to help profit margins.
“In Bali alone there are three legal arak distilleries and there are more than 450 distilleries making fake booze with palm spirits,” said Browning. “They’ll take a bottle of Absolut Vodka and mix it half and half.”
A Facebook site has even sprung up devoted to trying to put an end to the deaths and poisonings. “A Drink To Die From” features an online petition aimed at halting the disturbing trend.
“Since 2009, many Indonesians and tourists have died and suffered permanent brain damage and blindness from methanol poisoning in Indonesia, particularly on Bali, Lombok and the Gili Islands,” reads the petition.
“Some bars spike their cocktails with methanol, locally produced arak can contain methanol and sealed bottles bought in minimarts have been laced with methanol. So if an Indonesian or a tourist drinks spirits anywhere and at any time, they are at risk and may be killed, blinded or suffer brain damage.
“We call on Indonesian authorities to fully investigate this problem of methanol poisoning, put an immediate stop to the practice of spiking/producing spirits with toxic methanol and bring those people responsible to justice.”
The flood of adverse publicity in tourism-oriented Bali may give the petition some sorely needed legs – to date just 502 people have signed on, a far cry from the stated goal of 700,000.
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