PHNOM PENH: Four people died in northeastern Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province after consuming rice wine containing high levels of methanol, officials said on Tuesday.
The incident occurred at a village in Kon Mom district’s Sre Angkrong commune after the victims, who were workers at a banana plantation company, had recently drunk rice wine bought from local grocery stalls, said Ratanakiri provincial governor Nhem Sam Oeun.
“According to the figure recorded by the Ratanakiri Provincial Health Department, four men were confirmed dead and one had been hospitalised after drinking the tainted wine,” he told Xinhua over the telephone.
The governor said lab tests found that the deaths were caused by the high levels of methanol in the wine.
“The test results confirmed that the tainted wine contained methanol levels of between 8.21 and 18.8 per cent, which were much higher than the normal level of 0.15 per cent,” Sam Oeun said.
A local rice wine vendor had been questioned over the incident, he said.
Ung Ratana, director of the Ratanakiri Provincial Health Department, confirmed the incident, saying that the victims had developed symptoms, such as abdominal pain, eye irritation, vomiting, breathing difficulty, dizziness and fatigue. Rice wine is popular in rural areas in the Southeast Asian country because it is cheap. Last month, methanol-laced rice wine killed one villager and left 27 others hospitalised in northwest Pursat province, according to the Pursat Provincial Health Department. – BERNAMA-XINHUA
