eli5 Because alcohol kills bacteria, could someone reuse something like a shot glass over and over without cleaning and have no ill effect?
In: Chemistry
The first thing to note is that the alcohol you consume is a different kind than the cleaning type.
Alcohol you consume is ethyl alcohol. The other is isopropyl alcohol. Consuming isopropyl alcohol can cause death, but in small doses, it can lead to blindness. Chemically, they are very different.
Your body can metabolize ethyl alcohol due to an enzyme called ADH (Alcohol dehydrogenase), but this enzyme does not work for isopropyl alcohol, thus making it fatal.
When ethyl alcohol is metabolized, it gets converted into a complex sugar (carbohydrate), which is then further broken down to simple sugars. The body then uses that for energy.
In theory, a very high proof ethyl alcohol could ‘sterilize’ the container. In most cases, it really doesn’t.
There is your chemistry lesson for the day kids. I now return you to your scheduled program.
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