More than 30 people are dead after ingesting “illicit” alcohol that was reportedly mixed with methanol. Here’s what you need to know about the incident.
“The entire Karunapuram locality in Kallakurichi on Thursday echoed with the wails of the family members of the victims of illicit arrack that claimed the lives of at least 34 people,” said the Press Trust of India reported Thursday. “About 100 others are undergoing treatment.”
Chief Minister M K Stalin said the deaths were due to consumption of “methanol mixed arrack” and said authorities were providing special care to those hospitalized. Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami demanded for the minister to resign, said the Press Trust of India.
Arrack is an Asian alcoholic beverage similar to rum. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “methanol is a toxic alcohol that is used industrially as a solvent, pesticide, and alternative fuel source,” and “most methanol poisonings occur as a result of drinking beverages contaminated with methanol or from drinking methanol-containing products.”
Stalin announced Thursday that people associated with the crime have been arrested, “and action has also been taken against officials who failed to prevent it,” said the Associated Press, referring to an X post.
According to the AP, “deaths from illegally brewed alcohol are common in India, where the poor cannot afford licensed brands from government-run shops,” and illicit liquor is often spiked with chemicals to increase potency. It said there were reports of nearly 200 illicit alcohol related deaths over three separate incidents from 2020 to 2022.
Bootlegging has become profitable in the country, since there are no taxes and bootleggers sell “enormous quantities” of the product, per the AP report.
Northwestern University’s “Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930” page notes that “he association of death and alcohol includes accidental deaths from illegally brewed alcohol, which may have been toxic,” particularly during the Prohibition era in the U.S. It also said some deaths were associated with excessive drinking.
More recently, alcohol-related emergency department visits increased 47% between 2006 and 2014 in the U.S., per the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. That is equivalent to average annual increase of 210,000 alcohol-related emergency department visits.