British lawyer latest person to die from methanol poisoning

The government's travel advisory website 'smart traveller' has updated its guidelines for people heading to south east Asia urging caution.

Transcript

00:00It's similar to ethanol, it's used to bulk up the alcohol, so it makes it a cheap addition,

00:08it's a lot cheaper.

00:09It is odourless, it's colourless, so just taking a smell of a drink, no, you're not

00:14going to pick it up like that.

00:16There are certain things to be aware of.

00:19What I've seen in various countries is often you'll find that the alcohol has been produced

00:25under a similar name, so instead of Johnny Walk, you might have Johnny Walking or those

00:31sort of play on different names.

00:32So you'll find the labels are always a first clue on it.

00:36And another thing that happens often with people who are producing alcohol illegally

00:42is that they will reuse existing bottles.

00:45So if you have a bottle of a spirit that's a well-known spirit, then you find the label

00:50is damaged.

00:51So that is always a really clear indicator that maybe that alcohol is being tampered

00:55with.

00:56These are tricky things to find out.

00:57I think part of it is learned behaviour.

01:01We know now not to leave our drinks unattended when we're in clubs and bars, and the same

01:05is to be aware of how you're drinking.

01:09Can you see that drink being opened in front of you?

01:12But then again, it can also occur naturally when you are distilling certain spirits as

01:16well.

01:17So we're talking about home brewing distilling operations.

01:20So if you're in a country where that alcohol is produced, doesn't have the same regulations

01:24as say Australia, or people are bypassing those regulations, that's when you're going

01:29to get this sort of incidents happening.