How many pints of vodka could kill the average man?

Question

what effects could be witnessesd.
(it's ok, i'm full of life :) just curious on what ppl think)

Answer 1

Difficult to answer this....but, here it goes:

To drink enough alcohol to kill oneself is very difficult, but possible - and does happen. Most times, people will start throwing up and get so sick that they can't continue to drink...
Others, intending suicide, usually die from other things they do when intoxicated (drink methanol, take other drugs, medication overdoses, guns, etc...)

BUT, if you drank enough in a short enough period of time...you would go into a coma. This would start as your drive to breathe would slow way down and you would become hypoxic (have low oxygen in your blood). The person would first get droswy and confused, then stuporous, then pass out. Their respiratory drive would continue to plummet, and their oxygen level would also drop...and they would be completely unconscious and unresponsive. Without medical attention (or even with medical attention), they could die.

For a non-drinker...only 100 pounds, it could be as little as 8-10 drinks in an hour.
See:
http://www.intoxikon.com/Pubs/Facts%20on%20ALCOHOL%20POISONING_4_7_05.pdf

The accepted lethal dose is 0.4%...which in theory, is a level that would kill half the population.

Now, you can mess around with this Blood Alcohol Calculator to determine what would lead to this level:
http://www.ou.edu/oupd/bac.htm

However, for the "average" man...weighing around 150 pounds, say...it would probably take at least 7 pints minimum...and likely more than this. But this is just a wild guess. Again, most that drink more than this have some developed tolerance, or they spaced it out over enough time, or they puke most of it up and pass out in their own vomit.

Although, there are plenty of deaths on college campuses from funnelling beer/alcohol very rapidly to attest to the fact that it can and does happen!

...so there you go....

Glad you are full of life!
yachadhoo