| Date: | December 2016 |
| Deaths: | 74 |
| Cause: | Consumption of fraudulent surrogate alcohol |
| Location: | Irkutsk, Russia |
In December 2016, over 70 people died and another 49 were hospitalized in a mass methanol poisoning in the Russian city of Irkutsk. Precipitated by the consumption of fraudulent surrogate alcohol, the incident was the deadliest methanol poisoning in Russia's post-Soviet history.
Russian consumption of surrogate alcohol rose rapidly in the early 2010s amid worsening economic conditions. Surrogates cost less than government-regulated vodka, and they were commonly available from supermarkets, strategically placed vending machines, and other shops.
In the Irkutsk incident, the victims drank hawthorn-scented bath oil. While the product was typically made with and labeled as containing drinkable ethanol, at least one batch was made instead with methanol. When even a small amount is ingested by humans, methanol acts as a nerve toxin. If untreated, it severely damages the optic nerve, causes paralysis, and eventually leads to unconsciousness.
A government investigation found that the methanol was sourced from an employee of a local windshield washer fluid production facility. In response to the poisoning, in mid-2017 the Russian government increased the legal punishments for illegally producing and selling alcohol and made it more difficult to acquire surrogate alcohols by banning the surrogate-containing vending machines.
See also: Alcohol consumption in Russia. In the 2010s, Russia's economy suffered from a financial crisis, depressed oil prices, and international sanctions put into place during the Ukrainian crisis even while prices for food were increasing.[1] In the Irkutsk region, where the poisoning took place, salaries remained low. Paychecks totaling around 15,000 rubles (about US$246 in 2016) were common,[2] by early 2017 the number of people living below the poverty line of 10,000 rubles per month (about $170) had increased by three percent since the beginning of the crisis.
At the same time, Russia remained as one of the highest consumers per capita in the world with an average yearly consumption of 11.7L as of 2016, according to the World Health Organization.[3] To continue those drinking habits even amidst the declining economic situation, many Russians turned to less-regulated surrogate alcohols as their cost was half that of the cheapest vodka, whose price was regulated by the government.[2] [4]
Experts estimated that surrogate alcohols made up twenty percent of the total alcohol consumed in Russia.[5] Other experts estimated that greater than ten million Russians routinely purchased such alcohol,[6] and that its consumption had increased by as much as 65 percent since the introduction of an alcohol excise tax in 2009.[7] Such a widespread use of surrogate alcohols led to increasing amounts of alcohol poisonings,[8] a problem that was already high in Russia as of the early 21st century.[9]
The Irkutsk mass methanol poisoning was caused by a fraudulently produced batch of hawthorn-scented bath oil. It was named Russian: boyaryshnik or Russian: Боярышник, the Russian word for hawthorn, and was also described as a lotion.[2] [10] The product shared its name with a popular hawthorn-flavored tincture, and vodka historian Alexander Nikishin told the magazine Vice that was a deliberate choice to obfuscate its intended purpose:
The Russian: boyaryshnik bottles carried clear warnings that they were not intended for consumption.[11] However, many Russians knew that the product was meant to be a cheap vodka substitute and government authorities condoned its sale. The oil bottles were typically half the size of vodka, but the alcohol content was so high that individuals could dilute them to a similar alcohol by volume.
These sorts of surrogate alcohols were widely available in Russian supermarkets, shops, and vending machines. They were also not subject to any legal age requirement, the alcohol excise tax (levied as part of an anti-alcohol effort in 2009), or other restrictions introduced in recent years to curb alcohol consumption in the country. The vending machines were particularly problematic: they were often deliberately placed near impoverished areas of Russian cities to appeal to those seeking a cheap alternative to legal alcohol at any hour of the day or night.[12] They were also highly profitable.[2]
The bath oil involved in the December 2016 mass poisoning was fraudulently made with methanol, which is poisonous: symptoms of methanol toxicity also include central nervous system depression. It was then placed into bottles that had the bath oil's typical labels, which stated that they contained the usual ethanol, the alcohol found in vodka and other alcoholic drinks.[11] A later government investigation showed that the methanol was acquired from an employee of a local windshield washer fluid firm, who stole and sold the substance without the knowledge of the company's head.[13]
Methanol is cheaper than ethanol,[14] and the two are difficult to tell apart: both are colorless, and both give off a similar odor. Amounts as small as 30- can be fatal.[15] [16] The human body breaks down methanol into formaldehyde and formic acid, both of which act as nerve toxins and damage the optic nerve.[2] Irkutsk victims found themselves going blind before being unable to move and finally lapsing into a coma. For some, the latter two happened before they were able to call for emergency assistance.[2]
The Irkutsk methanol poisoning's first hospitalizations began on 17 December, and local press reports emerged late on 18 December with the news that eight people had died and another nine were hospitalized.[17] [18] By the end of the 19th, a total of 57 people were hospitalized and 49 were dead.[14] [19] Irkutsk authorities resorted to checking individual city residents and properties, in addition to common gathering points for homeless individuals, and found numerous victims who had been unable to call for help. They delivered the bodies straight to a morgue.
Over the next several days, the death toll continued to increase. On the 20th, the Irkutsk health ministry reported that the death toll had risen to 52 with another 29 hospitalized.[20] Those numbers rose to 62 dead plus 40 hospitalized on the 21st;[21] 74 plus 30 on the 23rd;[22] 77 plus 16 on the 27th,[23] and finally 78 dead on 9 January.
A medical investigation dropped the death toll to 74 people, as four previously attributed to methanol were actually caused by drinking too much non-fraudulent ethanol-based bath oil. Scientific and media articles have also pegged the number of deaths at 76 or 78 people.
Regardless, the incident was the deadliest mass methanol poisoning in Russia's post-Soviet history. "Poisonings caused by cheap surrogate alcohol are a regular occurrence," a reporter for the Associated Press news agency wrote, "but the Irkutsk case was unprecedented in its scale." Including the deaths, a total of 123 people were hospitalized.
Most of the victims were residents of the neighborhood in Irkutsk. They included teachers, nurses, and drivers; The New York Times described the majority as holding "steady if low-paying jobs". The Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda profiled one victim, a 34-year-old mother who bought the bath oil to share over dinner with her husband. She consumed two shots, which was enough to kill her.[2] [24] According to state-owned media, Irkutsk's government gave 13,325 rubles to families of the dead to pay for funerals (about US$ in 2016).[25]
Treating the victims was made more difficult because fomepizole, a methanol antidote, is not certified for use in Russia and is not available in the country's hospitals. However, some victims survived because they had been drinking other ethanol-based alcohol at the same time as the methanol-laced product, which counteracted the latter.
Irkutsk's mayor Dmitry Berdnikov declared a state of emergency on 19 December.[26] By the next day, the Russian government said that it had seized about 2000L of illegal alcohol, uncovered an underground facility where the bath oil had been produced, and 500L of remaining fraudulent bath oil from around 100 retailers in the Irkutsk area.[19] [27] On the 23rd, the state-owned TASS news agency reported that Russian police had seized over 10,000 small bath oil bottles.[28]
Twenty-three people involved in the production of the oil were quickly detained by Russian authorities, including local vendors who sold the product, police officers, and a senior regional government official for the greater Siberian region.[23] [29] A further five people were arrested in January 2017 and charged with selling and publicizing surrogate alcohol.[30] In February 2020, the last of 19 individuals jailed or fined for distributing the fraudulent alcohol was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison.[31]
After the incident, a spokesperson for Russian president Vladimir Putin called it a "terrible tragedy".[19] They blamed it on a failing of "supervisory bodies". Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called for a ban on non-traditional alcoholic liquids like bath oils, saying "it's an outrage, and we need to put an end to this".[19] Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko publicly supported additional regulations on alcohol-containing liquids,[27] and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Khloponin proposed accomplishing something similar by requiring pharmaceutical prescriptions.[32] Alexei Navalny, an opposition politician, opined that "Russian: boyaryshnik is killing more people than terrorist acts did in the whole history of Russia" each year.[4]
Putin announced on 22 December that he supported increasing regulations on products with more than 25 percent alcohol, increasing punishments for anyone who broke alcohol manufacturing and distribution laws,[33] and expanding the alcohol excise tax to alcohol-containing products in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics business sectors.[34] "In practice we see what such indulgences lead to: dozens of people dying like flies," Putin said.
On 26 December 2016, Rospotrebnadzor, Russia's government agency devoted to consumer protection, banned all sales of most non-food items with more than 25 percent alcohol (with exceptions for window cleaning liquids and perfume).[35] [36] Their order was scheduled to run for one month, but they extended it multiple times so that it was in effect nearly every day through 2018.[37] Nevertheless, the exceptions and exclusions in the measure were utilized to keep drinkable medicinal tinctures, antiseptics, and Eau de Cologne on retail shelves, even while bath oils, some kinds of perfume, and other similar products were gone.[38]
In May 2017, the Russian government pegged the minimum legal price of vodka to 205 rubles per half liter (equivalent to about one pint, and US$ in 2016). That was lower than a previously announced price increase to 219, but it was still about 2.4 times the minimum price of vodka in 2011 and 15 rubles more than the price of vodka at the time of the Irkutsk poisoning.[39] Two months later, they strengthened legal punishments for illegally producing and selling alcohol, banned the kind of alcoholic vending machines through which the Irkutsk bath oil was sold, and prohibited online advertisements of alcoholic retailers.
In December 2018, the government passed a new law that ended the ability of retailers to sell non-food items with an ethanol content of 28% or above at a price below that of the legal minimum for vodka and other liquors. The intended effect was to put an end to the ability of cheap surrogate alcohol to economically compete with their regulated alternatives.[40]