Fatal intoxication due to home distillation of methanol: Report of three cases

Methanol intoxication is an important poisoning for emergency physicians and has a high mortality rate. It is also an important public health problem for the society as the methanol participates in the structure of many industrial solutions. In recent years, deaths due to methanol-related intoxications have increased in many countries around the world, including Turkey as well. One of the main reasons for the increase in these deaths in our country is the expensiveness of baranded commercial alcoholic drinks and for this reason the increase in the production of self-made alcohol at home. In addition, in our country, the production of alcoholic drink at home is increasing both for hobby purposes and for being different and similar reasons. Accordingly, the distillation of alcohol at home with various brewing systems has become an increasing phenomenon in recent years. This may cause under-the-counter, fake, or unknown content alcohol poisonings. Herein we present three patients belonging to the same family, who admitted to our emergency department (ED) after consuming the alcoholic drink they made at home, but died despite the optimal treatment. (C) 2022 Societe Francaise de Toxicologie Analytique. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.