4 ms·

I was disinfecting something with an aerosolized 70% ethanol in the early days of covid, accidentally got a whiff (through a surgical mask, no less) and was sho

I was disinfecting something with an aerosolized 70% ethanol in the early days of covid, accidentally got a whiff (through a surgical mask, no less) and was short of breath for a week starting immediately (clearly from the ethanol vapor, also had a negative covid test a few days later) Any of you HNers aware of this ? I was unable to find anything online. It may be related to the vomit-inducing agent they put in store bought ethanol (by law, in most places). Or the ethanol itself - but I couldn’t find any description of what I endured.

nwellinghoff 6y ago
Are you sure it wasn’t methanol?
- beagle3 6y ago
  Almost sure. It was 70% rubbing alcohol, which is almost exclusively ethanol around here. (Bought it in a pharmacy, and they're not supposed to sell pure methanol at pharmacies here)
  - grawprog 6y ago
    Most bottles labeled rubbing alcohol sold here are a mix of ethanol and isopropynol(i think mostly to discourage drinking it). Isopropynol vapours can cause respiratory irritation. https://www.msdsonline.com/2015/02/20/isopropyl-alcohol-safety-tips-from-msdsonline/ https://www.msdsonline.com/2015/02/20/isopropyl-alcohol-safe...
    - beagle3 6y ago
      It is supposed to be 70% ethanol with up to 0.1% “other stuff” that is supposed to discourage drinking, and when I checked 10 years ago I think it wasn’t isopropyl but I might be misremembering or thing have changed. Thanks! Will look into that.
      - grawprog 6y ago
        It could just be something here. There's a lot of restrictions on ethanol here. It's pretty hard to buy. Most of what you can find in general tends to be isopropynol or methyl hydrate.
        beagle3 6y ago
        For the past few years I’ve mostly been in Israel (the “here”) and basically only Ethanol is sold in pharmacies for medical use; you CAN get e.g. isopropyl for cleaning whiteboards, but not in a pharmacy.
        grawprog 6y ago
        I've seen food grade ethanol sold here in extremely tiny amounts at pretty high prices for perfume making. Other than that you need a license to acquire it. I'm fairly certain there's different licenses for different applications too. Pharmaceuticals falls under a different category than distillers and stuff with different rules. Alcohol in general is highly regulated here so it falls under those same regulations.

nwellinghoff 6y ago

Are you sure it wasn’t methanol?

beagle3 6y ago
Almost sure. It was 70% rubbing alcohol, which is almost exclusively ethanol around here. (Bought it in a pharmacy, and they're not supposed to sell pure methanol at pharmacies here)
- grawprog 6y ago
  Most bottles labeled rubbing alcohol sold here are a mix of ethanol and isopropynol(i think mostly to discourage drinking it). Isopropynol vapours can cause respiratory irritation. https://www.msdsonline.com/2015/02/20/isopropyl-alcohol-safety-tips-from-msdsonline/ https://www.msdsonline.com/2015/02/20/isopropyl-alcohol-safe...
  - beagle3 6y ago
    It is supposed to be 70% ethanol with up to 0.1% “other stuff” that is supposed to discourage drinking, and when I checked 10 years ago I think it wasn’t isopropyl but I might be misremembering or thing have changed. Thanks! Will look into that.
    - grawprog 6y ago
      It could just be something here. There's a lot of restrictions on ethanol here. It's pretty hard to buy. Most of what you can find in general tends to be isopropynol or methyl hydrate.
      - beagle3 6y ago
        For the past few years I’ve mostly been in Israel (the “here”) and basically only Ethanol is sold in pharmacies for medical use; you CAN get e.g. isopropyl for cleaning whiteboards, but not in a pharmacy.
        grawprog 6y ago
        I've seen food grade ethanol sold here in extremely tiny amounts at pretty high prices for perfume making. Other than that you need a license to acquire it. I'm fairly certain there's different licenses for different applications too. Pharmaceuticals falls under a different category than distillers and stuff with different rules. Alcohol in general is highly regulated here so it falls under those same regulations.