What makes cleaning/sanitizing alcohol different from drinking alcohol? When distilleries switch from making vodka to making sanitizer, what are doing differently?
In: Chemistry
There are a few differences. They mostly involve the “impurities” in the alcohol.
Although many sanitizers are *mostly* ethanol as an active ingredient, they often have secondary ingredients like moisturizers to prevent skin drying (or the associated “burns” from overuse). The sanitizer used at my workplace, Alco H&S has a secondary ingredient – [lactic acid](https://webserv-ext1.sanimarc.com/b2bservices/files/msds/MSDS0910006E.PDF) – that leaves an antibacterial “film” on your hands that you can feel long after use.
Spirits and liquor usually have a variety of impurities like sugars, tannins, or juices that change their flavour or improve their shelf lives; the sugars need to ferment in a controlled way to avoid introducing dangerous bacteria to the drink that can make it “go bad”. They also tend to be much lower percentage alcohol than sanitizers.
Drinking 100% pure ethanol (200 proof) tastes incredibly bad; it’s a solvent. It literally dries your throat out as it travels into your belly. While even high purity ethanol only risks minor damage as long as you keep within your BAC tolerance, *methanol* (the main ingredient of anti-freeze) is incredibly dangerous and you should not drink it.
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