Photo: Wikipedia
I should probably make it clear that Mountain Dew's own “Dewshine” brand has nothing to do with this story, as PepsiCo isn't really into developing alcoholic drinks. The Dewshine soft drink that is sold almost in every store is safe(r) to drink than what a bunch of Tennessee teenagers drank and became ill.
That said, the illegal and highly dangerous type of Dewshine is apparently a mixture made from the Mountain Dew soft drink and racing fuel usually used in drag racing. Yes, you read that correctly, there are some people out there who think that drinking racing car fuel is perfectly normal.
To be more precise, the racing fuel mentioned here is almost 100 percent methanol, which is an industrial type of alcohol that is extremely poisonous and should never be used for human consumption. The alcohol used in the creation of various alcoholic beverages is ethanol, which is technically safe for ingestion in reasonable amounts.
Both types of alcohol will get you drunk as a skunk, but the methanol kind is likely to give you blindness, put you in a coma or kill you.
So far, two high school students from Greenbrier, Tennessee, have died after drinking the so-called “Dewshine,” but there are at least four cases reported so far. Two more teenagers from the same high school as the others were reportedly taken to the emergency room after ingesting racing fuel mixed with Mountain Dew, but they seemed to be alright and they were released from the hospital.
“We have certainly seen methanol infections, but nothing like this. I mean, this was a product that was almost 100 percent methanol, which is quite unusual,” said Dr. Donna Seger, the Director of the Tennessee Poison Center. “I think it’s very sad because I am sure that they had no idea how toxic what they were ingesting was,” she continued.
The two deaths are tragic, so one must learn that if you play stupid games, you can only win stupid prizes. Racing fuel is for cars, not for humans.
To be more precise, the racing fuel mentioned here is almost 100 percent methanol, which is an industrial type of alcohol that is extremely poisonous and should never be used for human consumption. The alcohol used in the creation of various alcoholic beverages is ethanol, which is technically safe for ingestion in reasonable amounts.
Both types of alcohol will get you drunk as a skunk, but the methanol kind is likely to give you blindness, put you in a coma or kill you.
So far, two high school students from Greenbrier, Tennessee, have died after drinking the so-called “Dewshine,” but there are at least four cases reported so far. Two more teenagers from the same high school as the others were reportedly taken to the emergency room after ingesting racing fuel mixed with Mountain Dew, but they seemed to be alright and they were released from the hospital.
“We have certainly seen methanol infections, but nothing like this. I mean, this was a product that was almost 100 percent methanol, which is quite unusual,” said Dr. Donna Seger, the Director of the Tennessee Poison Center. “I think it’s very sad because I am sure that they had no idea how toxic what they were ingesting was,” she continued.
The two deaths are tragic, so one must learn that if you play stupid games, you can only win stupid prizes. Racing fuel is for cars, not for humans.
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