No 'dewshine' trend, Tennessee officials say

Public welfare officials said they have no reason to believe that there is a widespread trend in teens abusing methanol after the deaths of two Robertson County teenagers who drank "dewshine," a concoction of Mountain Dew and fuel used in high-performance cars.

Two teens died last week and two more were poisoned after drinking what one of the surviving teens told doctors was called "dewshine."

The Tennessee Department of Health isn't aware of any other cases, but will be examining the issue more closely in collaboration with the Poison Center, department spokeswoman Shelley Walker said.

4 'dewshine'-drinking cases are state's first

The deadly danger of 'dewshine'

The four cases were among the first reported in Tennessee, according to Dr. Donna Seger, medical director of the Tennessee Poison Center, located at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Nationally, there was only one methanol poisoning fatality reported among teens aged 13-19 by the American Association of Poison Control Centers’ National Poison Data System in 2014, the most recent year data is available.

Department of Children's Services officials, who work with youth across the state, said they are aware of only the four cases this week, spokesman Rob Johnson said.

Mary-Linden Salter, executive director for the Tennessee Association of Alcohol, Drug and other Addiction Services, said she had informally queried substance abuse treatment experts after hearing news reports about the Robertson County teens.

"No one is seeing this as a trend," Salter said.

Noting the teens were from the small town of Greenbrier, Salter said: "It's an unfortunate phenomenon, especially in small towns, that kids look for something to do and they get creative. They look for new ways to get high."

“Other than kids making really bad choices and not being very knowledgeable about (it), I’ve not heard or seen anything on social media or the Internet promoting this,” said Doug Varney, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

“I would think that it is kind of an isolated situation where a group of kids got together and made really bad choices. It’s such a loss, really. I can’t imagine what the friends and family are going through with this because it’s a senseless thing in retrospect, but at the time the kids really didn’t have any idea of the consequences.”

Reach Anita Wadhwani at 615-259-8092 and on Twitter @AnitaWadhwani. 

Common symptoms of methanol poisoning

• Severe headaches
• Blurred vision
• Rapid or deep breathing
• Drowsiness and/or confusion

These symptoms can occur 12-24 hours after exposure, and these patients require tertiary hospital care.

Source: Methanol Institute, www.methanol.org