 In December 2016, 74 people in Irkutsk died in a mass methanol poisoning, after drinking this toxic alcohol substitute.In 2018, the BBC reported that men in Irkutsk had an average life span of only 63.The society had declined and their health had suffered markedly

Irkutsk is located about to the south-east of Krasnoyarsk, and about north of Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia.