At 06:51 PM 12/23/02 -0800, Deborah Harrell wrote:
--- Ronn! Blankenship <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > debbi wrote: > >--- Jon Gabriel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >Deborah Harrell wrote: > > > > > > > > > Bonus points for those who come up with > > > *legitimate* instances of alcohol or cocaine use > >that promotes > > > > > survival (there are several, but they don't > > > involve addiction either).> > > Re: alcohol > > > I've also seen a few B movies where the town > drunk escaped being poisoned by > > > something in the drinking water. > > > >If the town drunk drinks _methanol_, thus risking > >blindness and death, > > Though it saved the guy from _The Andromeda Strain_ > . . . I don't remember that - I thought it was baking soda, to alter his blood pH? (but I read that a _long_ time ago!)
No. The town drunk was suffering from acidosis as a result of his long time consumption of MeOH and had a bleeding ulcer. The only other survivor was a colicky infant whose constant crying had led to alkalosis. Putting it together, the scientists finally figured out that the microorganism would only grow in a very narrow pH range. Later, when one of the scientists was exposed to the organism as a result of a seal failure (which they later learned was the result of the organism mutating so now instead of clotting blood almost instantaneously it ate certain types of plastic), baking soda was one of the things another scientist outside the contaminated lab suggested he look for to attempt to change his blood pH enough to protect him against the organism. There wasn't any baking soda, or anything else to use for that purpose, and eventually the observers realized that none of the animals in the lab had dropped dead, so the organism was clearly no longer killing by causing all the blood in the body to clot within seconds.
> >the ER will ply him with whiskey > >or similar spirits to avert Darwinian fate (the VA > >pharmacy used to stock "Everclear" for such > >situations). > > IIRC, the same treatment is used in the case of > someone who has consumed > ethylene glycol antifreeze: the liver tries to > break both down using the > same process, but in the case of ethylene glycol one > of the products is > (IIRC) formaldehyde, which is of course toxic, so > administration of a large > dose of EtOH ties up those receptors processing the > EtOH instead of the ethylene glycol. Yes to the treatment; I think you're right about the other too, but currently experiencing brain implosion (or something like that ;D )... Oh, The Joys Of Sleep-dep Maru :)
In my case, it's been long enough since I read that that I could be wrong about the toxic metabolic product of ethylene glycol being formaldehyde, but it was something like that ( C2H4(OH)2 -> toxic product while C2H5OH -> non-toxic products) . . .
--Ronn! :)
I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon.
I never dreamed that I would see the last.
--Dr. Jerry Pournelle
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