This will make you go blind’: What shopkeeper told girl about 'vodka' that damaged her sight

By
Chris Brooke

Last updated at 3:41 AM on 31st January 2012

Devastating effects: Lauren Platts was left vomiting and suffering from damaged vision after drinking the cheap ‘vodka’

When Lauren Platts bought a cheap bottle of vodka from an off-licence, the shopkeeper warned her: ‘This stuff will make you blind.’

She dismissed it as a joke but the next morning she woke up with blurred vision plus a terrible migraine and sickness.

Miss Platts, 21, fears the £5.99 bottle of industrial alcohol masquerading as vodka may have permanently damaged her sight.She says that more than two months later she still has blurred sight and regularly loses her peripheral vision.

Police, trading standards officers and doctors have issued new warnings about the dangers of counterfeit alcohol.

High demand for cheap alcohol – especially in student areas – has led to the growth of a lucrative bootlegging business across the UK.

The bogus branded bottles often contain chemicals that can damage the optic nerve. Miss Platts, a Sheffield University student, bought her bottle from a corner shop in the city in November.

Scroll down to hear Lauren speak about the ordeal

Dire warning: Drinkers have been advised to stick with legitimate brands of vodka (pictured) and avoid very cut-price versions

She said: ‘The shopkeeper handed it to
me and said, “All this stuff will make you blind”. I laughed it off at
the time but I’m not laughing now.’

She drank about a third of the bottle mixed with lemonade before going out for the night.

Miss Platts, from Chesterfield, told the BBC1’s Inside Out programme: ‘I
woke up with the worst migraine I have ever had. I was throwing up, I
couldn’t keep anything down. I wasn’t able to get out of bed for two
days.’

And the problem has failed to clear up. ‘My vision goes blurred, I have
black blotches and I tend to lose my peripheral vision quite a lot,’ she
said.

Speaking out: The 21-year-old is afraid her vision will never be the same after she unknowingly drank the ‘industrial alcohol’

‘It’s really scary when you can’t see anything when you are
driving or even walking down the street trying to cross the road. I
think I might have it for good but I’m just grateful to be alive or not
completely blind.’

Often in bootlegged vodka, methylated spirit, which is purple, is mixed
with bleach to eliminate the colour and make it look like vodka.

The counterfeit vodka often contains high levels of methanol, which is
used to make anti-freeze and can lead to vomiting, dizziness, blindness
and breathing difficulties.

Cut-price deal: Lauren Platts bought the cheap ‘vodka’ because she wanted to save money as a student at Sheffield University (pictured)

Dr Vikas Sodiwala, a consultant in emergency medicine at Lincoln County
Hospital, said patients were turning up at casualty departments showing
similar symptoms of dizziness, nausea, stomach pains, vomiting and
blurred vision.

‘Methanol can attack the optic nerve at the back of the eye,’ he said.
‘This is what can affect a person’s vision and in some cases make them
blind.’

A Sheffield trading standards spokesman said officers had seized ‘loads’
of illicit vodka from corner shops after being contacted by the
university over Miss Platts’s case.

One shopkeeper has been fined £1,000 for selling the vodka and more
prosecutions are pending.

ALARMING GROWTH OF THE ILLEGAL ALCOHOL TRADE

Drinkers have been warned to watch out for the dangerous counterfeit alcohol with the illegal trade growing rapidly across Britain.

In July, five men who were illegally distilling vodka at an industrial estate in Boston, Lincolnshire, were killed in an explosion.

One of the biggest illegal vodka scams was discovered at a Hackney factory in 2010. Polish workers at the rat-infested warehouse churned out 24 bottles per minute, cheating the public purse of £16m in duty and VAT.

A consignment of £430,000 worth of pure alcohol, disguised as car wash fluid, was seized in Dublin on its way to Britain in 2009.

Two years earlier, a massive distillery run by Polish workers at Cardiff docks was discovered. The 5,500 litres of ‘vodka’ found there contained dangerous levels of methylated spirits and industrial variants of alcohol.

In 2002, a woman celebrating her engagement died after drinking vodka sold to her by a local man in her hometown of Musselburgh, along the Firth of Forth. That same night, a mother of three living nearby was left blinded after drinking from the same consignment of the alcohol.

The bootleggers are using industrial alcohol, not agricultural alcohol, which is unfit for human consumption. Bleach is added to methylated spirit to make the alcohol clear, so it resembles real vodka.

Ingredients like methanol, which can blind, isopropanol and other harmful products, normally used in cleaning fluids, antifreeze and paint stripper, have all been detected in batches of the illegal alcohol.

Wine lovers have also been warned to choose their drinks carefully by trading standards officials.

Last June, a counterfeit wine scam was uncovered when a piece of chewing gum was found in a bottle of rose. Brands reportedly included Echo Falls, Blossom Hill, Kumala and Hardy’s.

Drinkers have now been told to watch out for Pinot Grigio bottled in Bulgaria, a stash of which was seized at a restaurant in Cheltenham, as it may not have undergone safety tests and could cause health problems.

BBC Inside Out, BBC One (East Midlands) 30th Jan, 7.30pm. Also available on the BBC iPlayer and Sky channels 980 (East Midlands).

Share this article: