171
Hmmm... pungent, weakly aromatic! (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[-] Decoy321@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I went and looked this up, turns out drinking acetone isn't as outright dangerous as I expected. Our bodies produce a little of the stuff when breaking down fat, into ketones. It's only a problem when there's too much of the stuff for the liver to process.

So basically it's like drinking rubbing alcohol.

... Which you still shouldn't do.

[-] ornery_chemist@mander.xyz 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't think your comment emphasizes enough how like drinking rubbing alcohol drinking acetone would be. Rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) is, in fact, metabolized directly to acetone when ingested. The acetone can be metabolized further, but a good chunk is also simply exhaled.

[-] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

All right then, chemically and metabolically speaking, (this is hypothetical and I never have any intention of drinking rubbing alcohol or acetone), what is the maximum amount of these liquids a person could drink before it becomes dangerous?

[-] ornery_chemist@mander.xyz 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

¯_(ツ)_/¯ I was just trying to highlight a fun fact about how they act similarly metabolically.

But since you asked, according to wikipedia, the oral LD50s for acetone and isopropanol (taking average of values for rats, mice, and rabbits) are 4713 and 3655 mg/kg, respectively. Extrapolating to a 75 kg human, that's 451 and 349 mL for a 50/50 shot at permanent night-night. For comparison, ethanol is ~7300 mg/kg -> 694 mL by the same metric.

[-] onion@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

There usually isn't a single point where something goes from safe to dangerous

[-] fossilesque@mander.xyz 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I looked up the safety sheet for this meme title ngl.

[-] urfavlaura@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

let's flush it down with some h2o2

[-] ornery_chemist@mander.xyz 8 points 1 year ago

Who needs metabolism when you can just explode?

[-] Chemical@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

On another note, now I want some spaghetti

[-] flooppoolf@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Why does the vinaigrette smell like a nail salon?

[-] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I've never seen acetone that looks so much like french fries.

[-] remotelove@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

I have never seen french fries that look so much like crudités.

this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
171 points (93.0% liked)

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