2016 Irkutsk mass methanol poisoning

2016 Irkutsk mass methanol poisoning

Date	December 2016
Location	Irkutsk, Russia
Cause	Consumption of adulterated surrogate alcohol
Deaths	Over 70[A]

External images
Examples of hawthorn-scented bath oil
Boyaryshnik, the surrogate alcohol brand involved in the poisoning, and the location where it was produced (via TASS)
Boyaryshnik and other similar surrogate alcohols (via TASS)
Images of boyaryshnik and shops that sold it (via RIA Novosti)

In December 2016, over 70 people died^[A] of methanol poisoning in the Russian city of Irkutsk. Precipitated by the consumption of adulterated surrogate alcohol, it was the deadliest such incident 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 were commonly available from supermarkets, small shops, and vending machines. In the Irkutsk incident, people drank hawthorn-scented bath oil with the brand name boyaryshnik. While the product was typically made with and labeled as containing drinkable ethanol, at least one batch was made instead with a toxic amount of methanol. The resulting poisoning led to dozens of casualties and deaths among residents of the Novo-Lenino neighborhood in Irkutsk. A subsequent government investigation found that the surrogate alcohol's producer sourced the methanol from an employee of a local windshield washer fluid production facility. In response to the poisoning, in mid-2017 the Russian government increased legal punishments for illegally producing and selling alcohol and made it more difficult to acquire surrogate alcohols.

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