Methanol Poisoning and the risks in travellers

Last month I went to a conference in London organised by the Safer Tourism Foundation which is a UK-based independent charity dedicated to preventing harm, injuries, and deaths among travellers, both domestically and abroad.  The morning session programme was dedicated to the risks travellers take, beginning with a presentation from Kathy Atkinson, the CEO of the organisation - A Travel Behaviour Risk Index which is project undertaken regularly.  The talk looked at why travellers behave differently on holiday.  Some of the detail and statistics can be found here.    Discussion panels were held on the older traveller and then on safer travel for women.  

The morning ended with a powerful session and the most impactful for me in a conversation led by Kathy with two individuals, Cathy Foley and Calum MacDonald, who gave moving and honest accounts of their life-changing experiences which I will expand on below this image.  

Left to right: Calum MacDonald, Cathy Foley 
& CEO of the Safer Tourism Foundation, Kathy Atkinson.  

CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING

I’ve highlighted Cathy Foley before, the mother of Hudson who died from carbon monoxide poisoning while travelling in Ecuador in 2023.  Can I remind you to visit or indeed, revist the blog about Cathy’s story and amazing work to highlight the risks.  The carbon monoxide monitor from the campaign, is a wonderful Christmas present to give to anyone who travels.  Details are highlighted in the blog HERE.  

It was an emotional date for her, marking the third anniversary that Hudson was laid to rest.  In her talk Cathy also said she had decided to close her business of 18 years as a nutritionist, to work full time on raising awareness of the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning.  

METHANOL POISONING

The other speaker was 24 year old Calum MacDonald.  Calum aged 23 at the time, drank free shots at a hostel in Vang Vieng, Laos, which were later believed to be contaminated with methanol.  He initially mistook early symptoms for food poisoning, but soon experienced severe visual disturbances described as a “kaleidoscopic, blinding light.” Within two days, he lost his sight permanently.  The BBC posted a number of reports including this one  on 18th August 2025 in which you'll hear a short clip from Calum explaining his story.  Since then he has campaigned to raise awareness of methanol poisoning.  At the conference session he was open, friendly and clearly so keen to share the important messages he wanted to convey to prevent any such tragedy happening to others.  One thing that really saddened me was to learn he was a chemistry graduate and he said for part of his degree, he had been studying methanol.  It was also his first type of trip like this and he was simply enjoying the experience and company of his friends.  Below is a recent video from a item on ITV's Good Morning Britain, 3 months ago.  (if you have any problems watching the video below on here, it can also be seen on YouTube).  

Since that time, Calum has been involved in the FCDO work who set out a campaign in their Travel Aware section, called  Spiking and methanol poisoning - Travel Aware  A press release from July 2026 was also published here and gives you more detail about their work.

The page explains that: Methanol is toxic even in small amounts. It is an industrial alcohol made from distilling wood and can be found in many commercial products, like antifreeze, fuel and paint thinners. In some parts of the world methanol products are sometimes illegally mixed with ‘real’ alcohol such as spirit-based drinks and cocktails.  Twenty-nine destinations now carry methanol poisoning warnings on UK government travel advice, including popular tourist destinations such as Indonesia, Laos and Vietnam. 

Medical experts believe that as little as 30ml (roughly equivalent to a shot) of methanol can be fatal for an adult, while 10ml can cause blindness.  

They have included a very moving video from families and friends who have lost loved ones to methanol poisoning share the message every traveller should hear.  Take a look at some of the very useul information on the page, including a moving video from the parents of some of those who died and two checklists on 

• How to spot the signs of methanol poisoning
• How to reduce the risk of methanol poisoning

A poster is also available to download and would be useful to display amidst your travel health materials.  

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR TRAVEL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

There are now a number of resources available to raise our awareness of methanol poisoning so that we can alert out travellers to the importance of the subject so please take a look at them.

• NaTHNaC have created a dedicated page to Methanol Poisoning that it would be good to point your travellers to - see here and their resources are good including 
• An infographic from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) see here
• An interesting article published in the Journal of Travel Medicine: Sawettachai Jaita, Gerard Flaherty, Toxic travels: the rising threat of methanol poisoning in international travellers, Journal of Travel Medicine, Volume 32, Issue 4, May 2025, see here