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Ethanol |
| Description |
This is primarily a social drug with a powerful central nervous system depressant. After absorption, ethanol is uniformly distributed throughout all tissues and body fluids. The distribution pattern parallels the water content and blood supply of each organ. Postmortem production of ethanol also takes place due to putrefaction processes, but vitreous humor and urine do not suffer from such production to any significant extent in relation to blood. Vitreous humor would normally have about 12% more ethanol than blood if the system is in the post absorptive state, and urine would normally have about 25% more ethanol than blood. The average rate of elimination of ethanol from blood is 18 mg/dL (15-20 mg/dL) per hour. |
| Therapeutic Low |
0.0000 |
| Therapeutic High |
20.0000 |
| Units |
mg/dL |
| Specimen |
B |
| Half Life Low |
2.00 |
| Half Life High |
14.00 |
| VOD Low |
0.43 |
| VOD High |
0.59 |
| Toxic Level |
20.000 |
| Lethal Level |
400.000 |
| Plasma to Whole Blood ratio |
1.20 |
| Warnings |
Under Federal Aviation Regulation Part 121, no covered employee shall report for duty or remain on duty performing safety-sensitive functions until the employee's alcohol concentration is less than 0.02 g/dL (20.0 mg/dL). Also, FAR Section 91.17 (a) prohibits any person from acting or attempting to act as a crewmember of a civil aircraft while having 0.040 g/dL (40.0 mg/dL) or more alcohol in the blood. Adverse clinical symptoms have been noted with blood ethanol levels as low as 20.0 mg/dL (0.020 g/dL). |