2016 Irkutsk mass methanol poisoning

In the 2010s, Russia's economy suffered from a financial crisis, depressed oil prices, and international sanctions put into place during the Ukrainian crisis.[1][2][3] With less disposable income to spend, citizens were forced to take drastic measures. In 2017, for instance, approximately half of the country's population was growing fruits and vegetables to supplement their diet, caused in part by a doubling in food prices in the preceding two years.[2]

For alcohol, these citizens—already one of the highest consumers per capita in the world—turned to surrogates, a cheaper but unregulated segment of the alcohol market.[2][4] Russia's deputy prime minister remarked that such non-traditional alcohol made up twenty percent of the total consumed in the country,[5] a figure backed by independent reporting from The Moscow Times, which noted that the total was still growing.[6] Although overall consumption of all kinds of alcohol had been in decline since 2005,[7] experts estimated that greater than ten million Russians routinely purchased such alcohol.[8] Such a large consumption of unregulated alcohol led to a "regular occurrence" of alcohol poisonings, but the death toll in this single incident was far higher than the norm.[1]

The hawthorn-scented bath lotion, or boyaryshnik, that caused the mass methanol poisoning was purchased as a drink because of its low price amid poor economic conditions. Although the bottles were typically half the size of traditional vodka, their alcohol content was such that they can be diluted into a strength similar to vodka.[2][9]

Such liquids were widely available in supermarkets, shops, and vending machines around Russia and were not subject to any legal age requirement; the alcohol excise tax, which had been increased as part of an anti-alcohol effort in 2009; or other restrictions placed in recent years to help curb alcohol consumption in the country.[7][9][10][2] The vending machines were a particularly problematic area: they were often deliberately placed near poorer areas of Russian cities, where the product would be appealing to those seeking a cheaper alternative to regular alcohol, and unlike legal alcoholic sales were available at all hours of the day or night.[6] "Everybody knew that it was not bath oil", one individual told The New York Times after the poisoning. "That label was just meant to fend off the inspectors".[2]

The fatal batch of lotion involved in the December 2016 mass poisoning was made with methanol (methyl alcohol, wood alcohol, CH₃OH), which is poisonous to the central nervous system and other parts of the body. Methanol is cheaper than ethanol (ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, CH₃CH₂OH), the alcohol found in vodka and other alcoholic drinks. The two alcohols are similar in many respects and cannot readily be distinguished, and their contents differed from the labels on the bottles, which indicated that they contained ethanol[1][11][12]—specifically, "93 percent of ethyl alcohol, hawthorn extract, lemon oil, diethyl phthalate and glycerol".[13] An investigation later revealed that the methanol was usually used in the local production of antifreeze.[7]

According to early reports on 19 December, a total of 57 people were hospitalized, with 49 dying.[1][11] The victims were described as being poor residents of the Novo-Lenino neighborhood in Irkutsk, all between the ages of 35 and 50.[12][14] Subsequent reports increased the number affected: first to 55 deaths (with a total of 94 affected),[15] then 62 (with 107 affected),[16][17] 77 (number of affected not given),[18] and 78.[7]

The final death toll was 74, lowered from earlier reports after it was discovered that some of the deaths were the result of drinking too much of the non-fraudulent ethanol-based bath lotion.[7] A total of 123 people were hospitalized.[7] About a third of them were found in their homes, having died before being able to call for an ambulance.[19] Of the remainder, a problem in attempting to treat them was that fomepizole, a methanol antidote, is not certified for use in Russia and is therefore not available in the country's hospitals.[2] Overall, the victims included a doctor, teachers, nurses, and drivers; The New York Times described the majority as holding "steady if low-paying jobs".[2][19]

In the immediate aftermath of the poisoning, a state of emergency was declared.[7] Twenty-three people involved in the production of the lotion were arrested by Russian authorities, many of which were local vendors who sold the product, and one senior regional government official for the greater Siberian region being charged with negligence.[18][20] About 500 litres (130 US gal) of remaining counterfeit lotion were seized from the underground facility where it had been produced,[1] and a few days later 13,500 litres (3,600 US gal) of methanol-containing liquid was seized from a warehouse in Irkutsk.[21] A further five people were arrested in January 2017, charged with selling and publicizing surrogate alcohol.[22]

After the incident, a spokesperson for Russian president Vladimir Putin called it a "terrible tragedy",[1] blaming it on a failing of "supervisory bodies",[2] and added: "What happened in Irkutsk was a tremendous tragedy. Words fail me. Certainly this was an outrage because the inspectors and other agencies were supposed to prevent it, and didn't do so."[23] Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, called for a ban on non-traditional alcoholic liquids like the bath lotion, stating that "it's an outrage, and we need to put an end to this".[1] Days later, the Russian news agency Interfax reported that Putin planned to lower taxes on alcohol in an effort to curb the use of unsafe alcohol substitutes, requiring officials to present a plan by 31 March 2017.[24]

On 22 December, Putin announced that regulations on products with more than 25 percent alcohol would be tightened, and punishments would be increased for those who break manufacturing and distribution laws related to them.[9][16] In addition, deputy prime minister Alexander Khloponin publicly supported tightening access to "medications" like boyaryshnik through requiring pharmaceutical prescriptions.[25]

On the following day, Medvedev ordered Russia's government agency devoted to consumer protection, Rospotrebnadzor, to ban all sales of non-food items with more than 25 percent alcohol. Their 30-day order came into effect on 26 December and was scheduled to run for one month before being extended for a further 60 days in January, March, and July; the restrictions did not cover perfumes and glass-cleaning products.[7][26][27] Further restrictions were considered, with one top health official announcing that a state monopoly may be imposed on Russia's perfume and pharmaceutical industries.[28] In the end, Russia amended its legal code to strengthen punishments for illegally producing and selling alcohol, banning the kind of alcoholic vending machines through which the Irkutsk bath lotion was sold, and prohibiting online advertisements of alcoholic retailers. The latter's legalization had been mooted prior to the poisoning.[7] Furthermore, the minimum legal price of vodka was lowered in both January and May 2017.[7]

Individuals interviewed by a New York Times reporter in February 2017 were skeptical that any measures would be successful in significantly impacting illegal alcohol sales, given that it was such a high percentage of the total market for alcohol.[2] Indeed, vendors in Irkutsk reported that sales of surrogate alcohols did not decline after the poisoning.[7] Still, Rospotrebnadzor announced at the end of January that the country had seen its first decline in monthly alcohol poisoning deaths in five years.[29]

• List of methanol poisoning incidents
• Prohibition in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union