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What makes acetone more harmful than ethanol?

C

Coolwhip

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Aug 16, 2011
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What makes acetone more harmful than ethanol? Being serious here, very curious.
 
I don't know, I posted this in another thread that someone else had started, he was asking about what would be an appropriate dose of acetone. Everyone in the thread was ragging on him hard, so I thought there must be something different about acetone which made it much more harmful than ethanol, so I was curious as to what it is. I guess the mods closed that thread and made my post into its own thread.
 
Acetone actually appears to be relatively safe as a chemical toxicity wise, safer than ethanol as far as death goes. 200ml is enough to induce a coma in some reports but I can't find someone who ODed on acetone and actually died from it.

However, it is a massive irritant at high concentration. It will burn like hell going down (if you could actually get it down without coughing it up) and would tear the tissues of your mouth up. Can't imagine that being fun. It's less "unsafe" than "you *really* want to do this?!?!"
 
oh wow, I thought people only ever accidentaly consumed acetone, or when their drugs are still in suspension. I cannot imagine why anyone would want to even drink it, although there are people out there still huffing glue etc.
 
acetone is a natural byproduct of fatty acid metabolism. in people who avoid carbs the concentration can be elevated (ketosis) and leaves you smelling like nail polish remover.

as far as solvents go, acetone is essentially nontoxic. it's more of an irritant than ethanol because it is a fairly good dehydrating agent (when applied to tissue neat) as well as solvent for e.g. the fats in your cell membranes,

i have read that acetone based tinctures of some drugs, like salvinorin for sublingual use, are worthwhile because of the greatly enhanced solvent power. one drop of acetone can dissolve 10 times or more the amount of salvinorin that 95% ethanol can.
 
Yes, it does.

You must dilute it. It is extremely irritating. But rather benign as far as toxicity goes.

It is not an average drunk per se, it is more of a heavy barbituate like sedation. It is very clear headed sedation. Rather smooth.
 
It appears not to be horrendously toxic per os. I used to date this schizophrenic girl by the name of vixxen. Unstable at times, several suicide attempts, or para-suicide attempts were made, again, via drinking propanone. None appeared to influct any long term damage on her.

Not the best of ideas of course...then word came she had left me for someone else, and promptly started using her brand new BF as target practice, left me, then got engaged, threw big fucking great chef knives at him :P
 
I was under the impression that acetone was minimally psychoactive compared to ethanol, which was why it's generally avoided. As other's have said though, it's not all that toxic when dilute, and also doesn't metabolise to an aldehyde like ethanol does which is good considering how unpleasant aldehydes are. I would expect isopropanol to be more psychoactive while still avoiding such unpleasant metabolites,though personally I try to avoid drinking organic solvents of any variety with the exception of GBL.
 
I have never deliberately ingested any IPA, other than traces of washing solvents, adhering to whatever, post-recrystallization, being in a hurry, etc.

That said, I did once buy a bottle of...vodka.. that did NOT smell right. Stank of IPA, I'd drunk one glass, gagged and sent the rest off to trading standards. Never heard back from them. The effect? it hit me like a truck load of sledgehammers, made my breath taste/smell all fruity and ketone-ish, and came with a hangover that made me wish the bottle came with a free plane ticket to switzerland and cab fare to dignitas.

The amount drunk, was a standard-sized mug, in terms of capacity, served full. That isn't anything unusual in terms of my alcohol consumption. I am not a heavy drinker, and I am also on chlormethiazole (to treat myoclonus and occasional seizure, nothing to do with alcohol consumption or detox, i am not, and never have been, an alcoholic. Typical consumption would be a few times a month drinking enough to be intoxicated, I can polish off a liter of spirit in a night, without so much as feeling nauseous, yet afterwards I wouldn't be likely to drink for a fair while. Not counting the odd beer, etc. when the occasion calls for it)

This stuff though, whatever the hades was in it, it sure wasn't all EtOH/H2O. No lasting ill effects, but something was definitely iffy, and IPA is the only suspect I can think of, the smell was very, very distinctive. There is no WAY that a single cup full of spirit would give me even the slightest hangover, not in the slightest, even on chlormethiazole (it has a pretty specific interaction with alcoholic drink not shared by other sedatives), but after that one, I just wanted to curl up and fucking die.


Verdict ? don't drink isopropanol. Stick to either EtOH, GBL, 2-methyl-butan-2-ol or similar, or ether.
 
Wow! just watching a tv show that is about women who are "addicted" to drinking nai polish. Its an american show "my strange addiction"
 
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