Health - Alcohol FAQ pt I: alcohol other than legal beverages

[bcubed]

It occurred to me that the alcohol sub-forum might benefit from a FAQ, discussing how to avoid certain dangers associated with hazardous drug combinations, dangerous sources of drinking alcohol, etc. What follows is a tentative section regarding the drinking of substances other than legalized alcoholic beverages.

"Alcohol" (popularly meaning ethanol: there are a series of alcohols, of which only ethanol is useful for internal use) is a legal drug, which acts as a CNS depressant. In addition to its use as an intoxicant, it has other uses, as well: fuel, sterilizing agent/antimicrobal, solvent, etc.

Because of these many uses, it's not uncommon to come across alcohol in a product not intended for human consumption, and can cause one to wonder if it can be used in place of drinking alcohol/ alcoholic beverage.

RULE #1: If it isn't intended for consumption, it's (almost certainly) unfit to drink!

In the US (and, from what I've read at this site, much of the world in general) it's required that all alcohol not intended for consumption be denatured--deliberately rendered undrinkable. Also, in the US, all (potentially drinkable) alcohol has to pay a substantial federal excise tax, amounting to $27/USgal. Thus, a producer of, say, fuel ethanol has a strong incentive to denature (poison) his product to remain fiscally competitve. All this combined means that drinking alcohol not intended to enter the body is a BAD idea.

Methanol: Methanol is probably the most dangerous adulterant added to ethanol. Methanol causes problems such as blindness and death, with a typical lethal dose (per wikipedia) of 100-150 mL. Interestingly, methanol, per se, isn't particularly deadly; it's the first-step intermediary product in metabolism of methanol, formaldehyde, that is. Because of this peculairity, ethanol (drinking alcohol) is useful as an antidote of sorts for methanol poisoning! (This is part of the actual medical procedure). This is because, with ethanol present, some of the "capactiy" of the first-run metabolism is used in converting ethanol into acetylaldehyde vs. turning methanol into formaldehyde, resulting in (hopefully) formaldehyde concentrations insufficient to kill/maim. That said, get anyone suspected of consuming methanol to an ER immediately! (Also, asuming one is situated such that medical care is impossible, methanol's longer half-life (roughly 43 hrs. in hospital settings) means that ethanol must be continuously administered for benefit.)

Isopropanol/"rubbing alcohol": Isopropanol is also not useful for drinking, as its intermediary metabolite is acetone. Considered to be deadly at "half the dose of ethanol" (wikipedia again), it might or might not wind up killing SWIY, but it WILL make SWIY feel bad enough as to not repeat the process. Like the other two alcohols mentioned, it is a CNS depressant.

Examples of "non-beverage" alcohols:
1. Vanilla/almond/etc. extracts: as these products ARE intended to be ultimately consumed, they are theoretically potable (though SWIY MUST verify this in each case!) They are not, however, terribly pleasant.

2. Mouthwashes: These, while not intended for consumption, are intended to be used internally, and thus (to my Lizard's experience) contain no methanol. There are, however, many unpleasant things included (eucalyptol 0.092%, Menthol 0.042%, Methylsalylate 0.06% and Thymol 0.064% were all indicated present in a sample of mouthwash obtained).
Although there has been much anectdotal evidence of desperate alcoholics (incl. Lizard when he was a desperate alcoholic) drinkng this and surviving more or less unscathed, this is NOT recommended in any circumstance, save maybe if not doing so would risk life-threatening DTs. (Note that Lizard tried to isolate the ethanol in mouthwash via fractional
distillation and was unable even to remove the food coloring, leading him to believe such efforts are worthless.)

3. Hand sanitizer/any ethanol-based product meant to be topically applied: Although I'm unaware of any hand sanitizers containing methanol (I believe it's considered "too toxic" even for use on skin), it wouldn't be unlikely for them to contain isopropanol (AKA isopropyl acohol/rubbing alcohol), which is deadly at roughly half the dose of ethanol. Again, highly not recommended (even more so than with mouthwash.)

4. Any other alcohol not meant for use in/on body: This stuff can be, and probably is, even more toxic that all the "non-drinking" alcohols mentioned, in that it doesn't have to be even remotely tolerable to the body. Very highly not recommended.

5. Illegal forms of alcohol intended for drinking: This would include distilled illicit spirits (moonshine, poitin, etc) as well as brewed beverages (beer, wine, cider, etc) where illegal. While there have been cases of poisioning associated with distilled spirits, these are almost always a result of using either denatured alcohol, methanol and some other ingredients as a "cutting agent," meaning that illegal alcohol shares the same risk as all illegal drugs, in that one needs to be confident as to their source. One final issue is that many "stills" were assembled with the use of lead. Alcohol, being a good solvent, would dissolve some of the lead, and lead contamination would be an issue. Again, this is a case of knowing one's source. (From "Moonshine Doesn't Come Unleaded, Roanoke Times-Dsipatch, 5/30/03," 50% of all moonshine sampled had lead concentrations in excees of US standards of 15 ppb, and that "About 80% of all adult lead poisoning deaths [presumably US only?] are due to moonshine consumption." Lizard would suggest that one might have their booze tested for lead, if SWIY consumes a lot of illicit alcohol.)

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Good idea
	Great project!
	thanks for sharing all of this!
	Great work on this: Informative, and a much needed addition to the forum