3 ms·

Isopropyl is drinkable (and highly intoxicating). Just very unpleasant to drink and highly irritating to the mucosa.

RajT88 2y ago
If I recall correctly, a politician's wife back in the 80's was hospitalized for drinking isopropyl. (Just looked it up on Wikipedia - I recall correctly)
- class700 2y ago
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/11/09/dukakis-ingested-rubbing-alcohol/aa98f03d-63e9-4486-9089-4387a1243b0e/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/11/09/... Kitty Dukakis
- n8henrie 2y ago
  You can be hospitalized for drinking too much ethanol, or too much water. Are those not drinkable? I'm an ER physician. I have worked in a poison control center. I take care of the people that drink IPA. I work on the Navajo Native American reservation, where this isn't terribly uncommon.
ryandvm 2y ago
"When it comes to drinking rubbing alcohol, the digestive tract suffers the most, even when only swallowing a small amount. The body metabolizes these extremely high alcohol levels into acetone. If consumed to intoxication, the substance can lead to organ damage. Because it's a central nervous system depressant, side effects can include dizziness, headaches and inebriation. Because it's a gastrointestinal irritant, it can cause nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting blood. In addition, "due to having a higher molecular weight than ethanol, isopropanol, is more intoxicating than ethanol and can produce an altered sensorium, hypotension, hypothermia, and even cardiopulmonary collapse. Hypotension is associated with severe overdose and related to a mortality rate of nearly 45 percent," according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). I am not sure I would call that "drinkable", unless you just mean it will physically go down your gullet.
- n8henrie 2y ago
  Please see my response to a sibling commenter. Nearly everything above is also true of ethanol. Drinking too much water is also lethal. I take care of plenty of patients that drink IPA. It is not uncommon in both people that think it will kill them and do it as a suicide attempt, as well as people that are desperate for a buzz but can't access ethanol (I work on the Navajo nation where ethanol is illegal and more difficult to obtain). In general, these patients sober up and go home, just like patients that drink ethanol. Compared to ethanol, patients are much more intoxicated, take much longer to get sober, and are more likely to exhibit symptoms of gastritis or esophagitis. But there is nothing about caring for them that is categorically different than caring for a patient with a significant alcohol ingestion -- in both cases, it is dose dependent.
  - ryandvm 2y ago
    Fair point. At high enough levels, ethyl alcohol is also a pretty effective poison.

If I recall correctly, a politician's wife back in the 80's was hospitalized for drinking isopropyl. (Just looked it up on Wikipedia - I recall correctly)

class700 2y ago
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/11/09/dukakis-ingested-rubbing-alcohol/aa98f03d-63e9-4486-9089-4387a1243b0e/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1989/11/09/... Kitty Dukakis
n8henrie 2y ago
You can be hospitalized for drinking too much ethanol, or too much water. Are those not drinkable? I'm an ER physician. I have worked in a poison control center. I take care of the people that drink IPA. I work on the Navajo Native American reservation, where this isn't terribly uncommon.

ryandvm 2y ago

"When it comes to drinking rubbing alcohol, the digestive tract suffers the most, even when only swallowing a small amount. The body metabolizes these extremely high alcohol levels into acetone. If consumed to intoxication, the substance can lead to organ damage. Because it's a central nervous system depressant, side effects can include dizziness, headaches and inebriation. Because it's a gastrointestinal irritant, it can cause nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting blood. In addition, "due to having a higher molecular weight than ethanol, isopropanol, is more intoxicating than ethanol and can produce an altered sensorium, hypotension, hypothermia, and even cardiopulmonary collapse. Hypotension is associated with severe overdose and related to a mortality rate of nearly 45 percent," according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). I am not sure I would call that "drinkable", unless you just mean it will physically go down your gullet.

n8henrie 2y ago
Please see my response to a sibling commenter. Nearly everything above is also true of ethanol. Drinking too much water is also lethal. I take care of plenty of patients that drink IPA. It is not uncommon in both people that think it will kill them and do it as a suicide attempt, as well as people that are desperate for a buzz but can't access ethanol (I work on the Navajo nation where ethanol is illegal and more difficult to obtain). In general, these patients sober up and go home, just like patients that drink ethanol. Compared to ethanol, patients are much more intoxicated, take much longer to get sober, and are more likely to exhibit symptoms of gastritis or esophagitis. But there is nothing about caring for them that is categorically different than caring for a patient with a significant alcohol ingestion -- in both cases, it is dose dependent.
- ryandvm 2y ago
  Fair point. At high enough levels, ethyl alcohol is also a pretty effective poison.