With 14,600 deaths caused by suspected methanol poisoning incidents worldwide since 2015, much more needs to be done to prevent tragedies like the death of Simone White in Laos last year (Brain damage, blindness and death: the global trail of trauma left by methanol-laced alcohol, 29 November).
Following campaigning by bereaved families and supportive MPs, the UK government has included education about methanol dangers in the national curriculum and strengthened Foreign Office advice to travellers, extending the warning to more countries. We now need a wider national campaign involving travel companies, with a message that in countries such as Indonesia, which has the highest number of reported incidents of suspected methanol poisoning globally in the past 10 years, spirits should be avoided altogether.
Jim Dickson MP
Labour, Dartford
