Isopropyl Alcohol - Jonathan Cooper

What are the Health Effects of Overexposure/Ingestion of Isopropyl Alcohol?

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Let’s make a scenario: It’s been a long day of cleaning and it’s finally over. You’ve been working with isopropanol (which ). It’s been an extended period of time and you’re a little drowsy, your hands are pretty dry and you’ve got a bit of a headache (1). Your eyes, nose and throat are also kind of itchy (1). You reach for your water. You take a sip and realize that the taste isn’t plain like it should be; it actually tastes bitter and has a sweet alcohol scent to it (1). Whoops. You accidentally drank the isopropyl alcohol you’ve been cleaning with (yikes!). Common sense kicks in, however, and you spit out the alcohol immediately (nice). So what would have happened if it was ingested? Isopropyl alcohol has the ability to depress the central nervous system(1). This means that your heart rate and breathing rate would have decreased. This drop in your heart rate would cause your blood pressure to drop. The drop in breathing rate would be due to an increase in breathing difficulty (3). As well, isopropyl alcohol would have heavily irritated or even burned your throat, as it greatly upsets mucus membranes (1). Had you taken a sip in the range of 100mL to 250 mL, the result could have been fatal. Ingesting that much isopropyl alcohol would have caused extreme irritation of the stomach lining, inflaming the stomach lining and causing severe abdominal pain (3). Depending on the person, a dose of 100mL to 250mL of isopropyl alcohol can also lead to coma or even death (2). Realizing the mistake you just avoided, you make a comically oversized warning label on the isopropanol container and relocate it back to its original spot.

(1) O'Neil, M.J., (Ed.). (2006). The Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, and Biologicals (14th ed.). NJ: Merc

(2)  Lewis, R. J. (2002). Isopropanol. Hazardous chemicals desk reference. USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

(3) Krause, L. (2012). Isopropyl alcohol poisoning. Retrieved from http://www.healthline.com/health/isopropyl-alcohol

(4) Whiteway, G. (Creator). (2012). Spray bottle [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.stockvault.net/photo/134697/spray-bottle