Quake3World

Pure alcohol can kill you in one blow?

Answers on the back of a postcard.

Also, is ingesting 1l of alcohol at, say, 10% any different from ingesting 100ml of neat alcohol? Does that affect absorbtion times or something.

MSDS Safety label on Absolute Ethyl Alcohol here in the lab:

DANGER! Poison. Vapor Harmful. May be fatal or cause blindness if swallowed. Cannot be made nonpoisonous. Causes mild to moderate eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritation. Repeated skin contact may cause sensitization/dermatitis. Ingestion, inhalation, or skin absorption causes central nervous system depression, liver and kidney damage, headache, dizziness, slurred speech, slowed reaction time, dimmed/blurred vision, nausea, abdominal pain, slowed breathing, cyanosis, acidosis, coma, circulatory collapse, and death. May cause fetal effects.

To oxidize the amount of alcohol contained in one 'drink' your liver must heat up to 100 degrees F for one hour. If you drink a 12-pack, your liver will be superheated for 12 hours.

So I guess pure alcohol is a completely different beast to dilute alcohol as found in bevarages.

Fair enough.

Then that leaves us with the question of how much dilute alcohol constitutes a lethal dose?

R00k wrote:To oxidize the amount of alcohol contained in one 'drink' your liver must heat up to 100 degrees F for one hour. If you drink a 12-pack, your liver will be superheated for 12 hours.

R U saying my.. uh... 'one's'... liver heats up when processing alcohol... to over 100 degrees?

Seems ludicrous.

Foo wrote:

R00k wrote:To oxidize the amount of alcohol contained in one 'drink' your liver must heat up to 100 degrees F for one hour. If you drink a 12-pack, your liver will be superheated for 12 hours.

R U saying my.. uh... 'one's'... liver heats up when processing alcohol... to over 100 degrees?

Seems ludicrous.

Well, the body is already at 98.6 degrees, it won't take too much to get to 100. Metabolism produces heat, and if the liver is working overtime, it makes sense that it could get above the regulated body temp.

like, farenheit?

You've already made me paranoid, like my body is about to go 'click' and I can gob out some liquid and mash a cup of tea.

Sadly, that's not on the cards. And it's not such a fantastic fact after all. Either way, dissapointing.

Clearly, I'm already mashed. Just wondering how far I'd have to go to reach the big '0bpm - fetch the black plastic sack' threshhold.

yeah

edit: at least i assume that's what R00k was talking about. 100 C is really not likely.

werldhed wrote:yeah

edit: at least i assume that's what R00k was talking about. 100 C is really not likely.

Hold on, my kettle's just boiled.

Wait, my bad. It's my pancreas. Shouldn't have eaten all that sugar.

BTW, that absolute ethanol info I posted was Denatured EtOH, which is different from the EtOH you drink. I'm not sure that you can get 100% pure EtOH...
...dunno...

Well, yeah. But you can definitely get dead from booze. So.... there' an answer somewhere.

Your body won't let you drink enough to kill you. Passing out is the natural reaction to prevent that from happening.

You can still get alcohol poisoning from too much though.

It all depends on body size, etc... I think the "typical" fatal amount is a BAC of .5%

R00k wrote:Your body won't let you drink enough to kill you. Passing out is the natural reaction to prevent that from happening.

You can still get alcohol poisoning from too much though.

50 or so people died from acute alcohol poisoning in the UK alone last year. tell that to them.

Wait, they're dead. You might hit a snag there.

What happens is when someone passes out they vomit, and don't wake up to clear it, and choke to death on their own vomit.

Mmm, chunky. But this is a death caused by alcohol poisoning. Admittedly, it's indirect, but it's the cause.

werldhed wrote:It all depends on body size, etc... I think the "typical" fatal amount is a BAC of .5%

laymans terms please mate.

I think rook is thinking weed. The only way weed every kills someone is if theire too stoned to be aware of their surroundings and get run over or someshit. Even that's a little far fetched but I could see it being possible.

However, I've never heard of anyone ODing on marijuana.

Foo wrote:

R00k wrote:Your body won't let you drink enough to kill you. Passing out is the natural reaction to prevent that from happening.

You can still get alcohol poisoning from too much though.

50 or so people died from acute alcohol poisoning in the UK alone last year. tell that to them.

Wait, they're dead. You might hit a snag there.

What happens is when someone passes out they vomit, and don't wake up to clear it, and choke to death on their own vomit.

Mmm, chunky. But this is a death caused by alcohol poisoning. Admittedly, it's indirect, but it's the cause.

Yes well, to be more specific, your body won't allow you to drink enough to die directly from alcohol poisoning, as long as you're drinking the regulated diluted amounts.
If you chug pure alcohol, you could certainly die from it.

The LD50 blood alcohol concentration is about 0.40 (mg/dl). A 150lb male would have to drink about 20 beers in an hour for that to occur, or about 15 malt liquor shots.

Have fun!

Kracus wrote:I think rook is thinking weed. The only way weed every kills someone is if theire too stoned to be aware of their surroundings and get run over or someshit. Even that's a little far fetched but I could see it being possible.

However, I've never heard of anyone ODing on marijuana.

Or if, when failing to obtain some in a club from someone with a shaved head and goatee, they discover their lead pipe is no match for actual fighting skill.

R00k wrote:

Foo wrote:

R00k wrote:Your body won't let you drink enough to kill you. Passing out is the natural reaction to prevent that from happening.

You can still get alcohol poisoning from too much though.

50 or so people died from acute alcohol poisoning in the UK alone last year. tell that to them.

Wait, they're dead. You might hit a snag there.

What happens is when someone passes out they vomit, and don't wake up to clear it, and choke to death on their own vomit.

Mmm, chunky. But this is a death caused by alcohol poisoning. Admittedly, it's indirect, but it's the cause.

Yes well, to be more specific, your body won't allow you to drink enough to die directly from alcohol poisoning, as long as you're drinking the regulated diluted amounts.
If you chug pure alcohol, you could certainly die from it.

Uhhh no, you can buy shit from the liquor store that'll kill you. Drink enough tequila and vodka and you could potentialy die. There's been plenty of deaths in the US from highschool binge drinkers.

R00k wrote:

Foo wrote:

R00k wrote:Your body won't let you drink enough to kill you. Passing out is the natural reaction to prevent that from happening.

You can still get alcohol poisoning from too much though.

50 or so people died from acute alcohol poisoning in the UK alone last year. tell that to them.

Wait, they're dead. You might hit a snag there.

What happens is when someone passes out they vomit, and don't wake up to clear it, and choke to death on their own vomit.

Mmm, chunky. But this is a death caused by alcohol poisoning. Admittedly, it's indirect, but it's the cause.

Yes well, to be more specific, your body won't allow you to drink enough to die directly from alcohol poisoning, as long as you're drinking the regulated diluted amounts.
If you chug pure alcohol, you could certainly die from it.

Fair enough. I agree, I just don't think it moves the conversation forward.

EDIT: But I realised this doesn't convey my love for you. *hug*.

Foo wrote:

werldhed wrote:It all depends on body size, etc... I think the "typical" fatal amount is a BAC of .5%

laymans terms please mate.

Well, as R00k said, if you're drinking slowly, you'll pass out before your Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) reached a lethal point (0.5%, I think). I forget what the BAC is when most people black out, but it happens before you hit 0.5.

If you can get enough hard alcohol in your stomach before you black out, your body will keep metabolizing until you hit the fatal point. But you won't know you're dying.

What your BAC is, how fast you reach it, and what levels your body can tolerate depends on things like your body size, sex, drinking and eating habits, physical activity, etc. So it's hard to predict how much a specific person can drink before they'll die.

What does 70cl at 15% vol equal?

How many of those inside of an hour?

How does the paracetamol factor alter this equation?

Interesting.

I've read that, dependant on body type, some people can pass out, and their brain's essential functions will just *stop*.

Whereas most monkeys are stuck with the 'get drunk, vomit, choke to death' routine, some are blessed with this 'your brian just stops' get-out-card.

well absinthe is 60% and it's drinkeable. you can get strohrum in 80% (90 too?) and you can drink it pure (not much tho).