WEBVTT - What's the Difference Between Ethyl and Isopropyl Alcohol?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren Bogelbaum. Here, Washing our hands with soap

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<v Speaker 1>and water is the number one way to kill and

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<v Speaker 1>remove bacteria and viruses. But we're not always just hanging

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<v Speaker 1>around a sink when we need one. That's why a

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<v Speaker 1>little bottle of hand sanitizer comes in very well. Handy,

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<v Speaker 1>so portable, so easy, pretty effective. Of course, in the

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<v Speaker 1>early days of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the United States

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<v Speaker 1>ran into a shortage of hand sanitizer, but many distilleries

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<v Speaker 1>came to the rescue. They had lots of alcohol on

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<v Speaker 1>hand or the means to order it, so they pivoted

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<v Speaker 1>to manufacturing bottles of hand sanitizer to help fill local

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<v Speaker 1>gaps and supply. But is the alcohol in whiskey or

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<v Speaker 1>vodka the same as alcohol in regular store bought hand sanitizer.

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<v Speaker 1>The short answer is not exactly, but it's fine to

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<v Speaker 1>use either as a disinfectant. Here's why. The most common

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<v Speaker 1>hand sanitizers use isopropyl alcohol, sometimes called isopropanol or rubbing alcohol.

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<v Speaker 1>You might have a bottle of it under your bathroom sink,

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<v Speaker 1>and you cannot drink this stuff. It will make you

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<v Speaker 1>sick and it will not make you drunk. The alcohol

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<v Speaker 1>that we humans do drink is ethyl alcohol, sometimes called

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<v Speaker 1>ethanol or grain alcohol. You might have a bottle of

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<v Speaker 1>this in your liquor cabinet or a diluted version in

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<v Speaker 1>your fridge. Since it's the kind of alcohol we talk

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<v Speaker 1>about when we talk about any alcoholic beverage, be it beer, wine, liquor,

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<v Speaker 1>or otherwise. Different human bodies react differently to it, but

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<v Speaker 1>small amounts generally won't make you sick, and it can

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<v Speaker 1>definitely get you drunk. Now, ethyl and isopropyl alcohols have

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<v Speaker 1>sort of similar molecular structures. Both consist as all compounds

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<v Speaker 1>that we call alcohols consist of at least one molecule

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<v Speaker 1>of oxygen plus hydrogen bound to an atom of carbon,

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<v Speaker 1>but beyond that, their chemical variations are enough to make

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<v Speaker 1>one drinkable and one dangerous to ingest. But when it

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<v Speaker 1>comes to hand sanitizer, they work the same way. Research

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<v Speaker 1>into exactly how it works is still ongoing, but they

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<v Speaker 1>both seem to muck around with the structure of proteins

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<v Speaker 1>and lipids and viruses and bacteria. They can dissolve membranes

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<v Speaker 1>and disrupt inner function, which kills those germs. For hand sanitizer,

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<v Speaker 1>the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a

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<v Speaker 1>solution of between sixty five to alcohol, using either ethyl

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<v Speaker 1>or isopropyl alcohol to get the job done. But if

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<v Speaker 1>a little alcohol is good at killing germs, isn't more better?

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<v Speaker 1>But why stop it's sixty seventy percent alcohol when you

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<v Speaker 1>can go all the way to one well? Because it

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<v Speaker 1>turns out that one alcohol is actually less effective at

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<v Speaker 1>dealing death to those dastardly diseases. When the alcohol begins

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<v Speaker 1>to do its work on bacteria, for instance, the injury

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<v Speaker 1>to the cell's outer wall can cause the bacteria to

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<v Speaker 1>form a protect of shell around itself. That's bad, the

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<v Speaker 1>viruses don't form those protective shells. But higher concentrations of

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<v Speaker 1>alcohol also evaporate very quickly, maybe before it could have

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<v Speaker 1>the chance to penetrate the viruses outer walls. That's also bad.

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<v Speaker 1>Adding ingredients that evaporate more slowly than alcohol means the

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<v Speaker 1>alcohol in the solution lingers longer on your hands. So

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<v Speaker 1>adding stuff like water, hydrogen peroxide, glycerol, and aloe can

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<v Speaker 1>make the solution even more effective. That evaporation factors into

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<v Speaker 1>our comfort too. Ethanol is more dehydrating, and we can

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<v Speaker 1>feel that when we use it on our skin. It

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<v Speaker 1>can make our skin feel tight and dry. A suppropyl

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<v Speaker 1>alcohol evaporates more quickly, but it doesn't dry out our

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<v Speaker 1>hands so badly. That's same super quick evaporation rate is

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<v Speaker 1>why we use rubbing alcohol to clean electronics. By the way,

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<v Speaker 1>I suppropyl alcohol got the more common name rubbing alcohol

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<v Speaker 1>in the nineteen twenties because it was used in liquids

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<v Speaker 1>or lotions that were rubbed into the skin for health

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<v Speaker 1>and healing. This was also the prohibition era, so this

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<v Speaker 1>good alcohol needed to be set apart from the bad

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<v Speaker 1>ethel alcohol that was banned at the time thanks to

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<v Speaker 1>the Eighteenth Amendment. Bravo to those distilleries who have been

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<v Speaker 1>turning it back into a health product in these are

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<v Speaker 1>COVID times. Today's episode was written by Kristen hall Geisler

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<v Speaker 1>and produced by Tyler Klang. For more on this and

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<v Speaker 1>lots of other high proof topics, visit how stuff works

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<v Speaker 1>dot com. Brain Stuff is a production of I heart Radio.

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