11 Dead and 32 Hospitalized, Rice Wine Is Currently a Main Cause

11 villagers in Damnak Ampel and Kdol village, Teouk Pos district's Krang Sda commune, died while 32 other were sent for emergency assistance. Rice wine is currently believed to be the only main cause.

Local doctors are treating patients while at the same time other health department officials were deployed to the villages to educate people. In the mean time, officials and a provincial court's prosecutor went down to the village and collected all rice wine for testing at the department of health.

Is this the local stuff that's made at home and passed around during family gatherings?

Tainted Rice Wine At Funerals Kills 13

BY BEN SOKHEAN | DECEMBER 9, 2016 | អានជាភាសាខ្មែរ

Thirteen people died and dozens more were hospitalized after drinking methanol-tainted rice wine during a series of funerals in a Kompong Chhnang provincial commune over the past month, officials said on Thursday.

full-story...https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/tain ... 13-121738/

The death toll has risen to 15 as two men died at home after refusing hospital treatment, and the rice wine producer has been arrested. A total of 78 people have been affected and 40 are still in hospital.

newkidontheblock wrote:Is this the local stuff that's made at home and passed around during family gatherings?

It is made locally in the villages but you can find it for sale in certain shops. Of course there is no quality control. From time to time the authorities talk about regulating the production.There was a 'clampdown' and control on the sale of rice wine in Phnom Penh not so long ago, but effectively there is almost no control on small scale production, particularly in the countryside.

Cambodia and other countries in the region have struggled to regulate illicit rural rice wine producers who raise the alcohol content of their wine using methanol. Officials on Thursday said that the wine responsible for the latest batch of fatalities and illness consisted of up to 25 percent of the toxic liquid.

https://www.cambodiadaily.com/second2/t ... al-121799/

I sampled a liquor cap of this crap two days ago. Horrible shit. Sold from a 40 ltr. jerry jug. A shop on the Hill.
If I ever go to another Khmer festival I will certainly stick with the warm beer & ice.

"I sampled a liquor cap of this crap two days ago. Horrible shit. "

Yeah, even the nontoxic variety tastes like radiator fluid.

taabarang wrote:"I sampled a liquor cap of this crap two days ago. Horrible shit. "

Yeah, even the nontoxic variety tastes like radiator fluid.

The two latest victims died in their sleep at their homes early Friday after refusing medical treatment, Mr. Tiravuthy said.

“They refused to come and check their health at the hospital,” he said. “They claimed they were fine.”

Impossible to tell when you just feel normally shit from the rice wine, or if it's because it's a lethal batch. It tastes lethal even when it's not. Obviously even the usual drinkers can't tell the difference.

I used to drink local rice wine when it was offered, but the number of poisonings has put me off a bit.
However, all rice wine is not poisonous, and most people who drink it don't die. Statistically, it's more dangerous to drive a motorbike.

Methanol rates high in deadly rice wine
Thu, 15 December 2016
Lay Samean

A ministry of Health press conference yesterday revealed that methanol levels in the rice wine that recently claimed the lives of 15 people and left 78 others hospitalised in Kampong Chhnang were significantly higher than the normal rate of 0.15 percent, with laboratory samples containing 0.2 percent to 1.47 percent of the toxic substance.

Officials are still analysing the methanol rates, said ministry spokesman Ly Sovann. “The patients and the villagers who died had the same symptoms,” he said. “They were poisoned by the methanol.” The first rice wine casualty occurred on November 3 in Domnak Ampil village and other deaths soon followed.

Only one suspect, 48-year-old Thann Ly, has so far been charged, according to Chun Dara, deputy police for economic crimes in Kampong Chhnang. Dara said Ly was charged last week for “distributing toxic substances”, adding no one else has been charged.
Five others, including two rice wine producers, one ingredient vendor and two wine vendors, were previously questioned and released...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/m ... -rice-wine