Tripod Home | New | TriTeca | Work/Money | Politics/Community | Living/Travel | Planet T | Daily Scoop
You can try your hand at Past Puzzlers, too!
The Scenario:
Let's just say the party got a little out of hand. Joe and his friends, who tend to get together a lot to work on their cars, spent a long, lazy Saturday drinking beer and fiddling with their autos. No big deal. They do this all the time.
As dusk descended, beer began to flow more freely. Goaded on by Joe's brother, inebriation began to set in. By the end of the night, several of the guys were quite tanked. Having suddenly discovered that they were out of beer and the liquor stores were closed, one of the guys put radiator fluid into Joe's beer and offered it to him, suggesting it was a mixed drink. It tasted sweet, and actually went down easily. He finished off the bottle before he realized what he was drinking.
Questions:
Answer:
As every mechanic knows, radiator fluid does wonders for modulating the temperature of your car's engine. And while most of us would not be enticed by a radiator fluid chug-fest, the effect of this potentially lethal toxin on the body is pretty amazing. And scary.
The answers as to whether or not Joe would get sick covered the spectrum. Some said just pump his stomach and he'll be fine. Others said he is going to get sick. Or, "he's going to get sick, and maybe die." Or, worst of all, "He's gonna die..."
As Joe discovered, radiator coolant goes down the hatch pretty easily. Initially, the ethylene glycol in the fluid has the effect of making him feel further intoxicated. It acts as a depressant of the central nervous system. After being quickly absorbed into the bloodstream the liver (whose job it is to help get rid of many types of chemicals) breaks down the ethylene glycol into various acids. This will cause a severe acidosis in the bloodstream. That alone may be enough to do him in. If it's not, the body, in a desperate attempt to rid the blood of these acids, breaks them down into something called oxalate. Oxalate is normally filtered by the kidneys. But in large amounts it will completely block and shut down the kidneys within a day or two. You also may see weakening of the heart, and fluid build up in the lungs. All told, it's a medical disaster.
The best thing you can do is to get him to throw up as soon as possible. Like immediately. Get rid of the stuff. If necessary, dialysis (a means of filtering and cleaning the bloodstream) may be life-saving.
One interesting aspect of Joe's misfortune is that he was drinking alcohol. Ethanol is the intoxicating alcohol in alcoholic beverages. Ethanol is metabolized by the same liver enzymes that are used to break down the ethylene glycol. So, guess what? An important part of the treatment of an ethylene glycol ingestion is to administer ethanol intravenously in order to slow the rate of metabolism of ethylene glycol and prevent the dire consequences. It works. Depending on the relative balance of toxins Joe has taken in, the alcohol might actually protect him.
Map | Search | Help | Send Us Comments