Alcohol WithOut Liquid

[zilla369]

This morning on CBS news website, i read about AWOL, a machine that's apparently already in pubs in England and is getting ready to hit the bars in the US.

Alcohol is mixed with pure oxygen and vaporized. The user inhales the mist into their lungs, creating a combination of the regular booze buzz and the mild euphoria one feels when inhaling straight oxygen. It's supposedly safe and legal. Most interesting, it cuts down on carbs, calories, and...hangovers (as the alcohol enters the bloodstream directly through the lungs, there's no residual toxins in the other normally compromised organs - and no dehydration to combat).

Price is about $3K US, so for now it's not really an at-home option, but will soon appear in bars in the states. Naturally some folks are already up in arms about it, but i can't think of a downside that's not already a downside for traditional forms of imbibing.

Has anyone seen and/or tried one of these babies? I'd sure like to.

[cdh]

IS this stuff flavored at all, or just ethanol/oxygen vapor? i.e. does the flavor of the spirit they bubble the O2 through come along, or just the booze?

Sounds like a fireball waiting to happen, actually. Ethanol burns. Oxygen really facilitates burning. The bottleneck that slows combustion is the rate the fuel gets vaporized and mixed with the ambient oxygen. This stuff sounds like premixed fuel just waiting for an errant spark. I can see stupid pub tricks already: inhale a mouthful of the stuff, blow it towards a candle and appear to breath fire. All fun and games until somebody scorches the inside of their lungs trying something like that. Would really take the pleasure factor of combining a drink and a smoke down to nothing...

So, sounds dangerous, not particularly pleasurable, and more like a method of medicating somebody than a fun pub toy. Unless all you want is to medicate yourself with enough ethanol to get blotto really quickly. And since the stomach isn't involved, the age old defense mechanisms against alcohol poisioning (e.g. nausea and puking) won't do any good at preventing too much ethanol getting into the bloodstream and actually doing real damage.

Maybe these things might survive in New Zealand where liability laws stick people with the consequences of their own stupidity... but in the US and probably the UK these things are a ruinous lawsuit just waiting to happen.

Edited August 20, 2004 by cdh (log)

[jsolomon]

It's supposedly safe and legal.  Most interesting, it cuts down on carbs, calories, and...hangovers (as the alcohol enters the bloodstream directly through the lungs, there's no residual toxins in the other normally compromised organs - and no dehydration to combat).

Uh, unfortunately, when your body detoxifies alcohol, you're bound to dehydrate because water is intimately involved in the pathway from alcohol -> aldehyde -> acid

Evidence: alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase Look for ENZYME/FUNCTION and here's a gentler overview

I'm going to have to join cdh's camp. This sounds like something to quickly get someone sauced on a birthday binge or a bachelor(ette) party and it has the possibility of being VERY dangerous without a third component to diffuse the explosive mixture.

I'm generally a brave/foolhardy person, but if I see one of those contraptions in a bar I go into, I'm turning around and walking out the door.

Edit to remove stoopid misteaks

Edited August 20, 2004 by jsolomon (log)

[judiu]

One of the pleasures of going to the bar is to "nurse" a drink over a period of time, not just slamming it down to get potted. How would that be accomplished with this delivery method? Plus the fact that I ENJOY the flavour of Bourbon!

[Joe Blowe]

One of the pleasures of going to the bar is to "nurse" a drink over a period of time, not just slamming it down to get potted.

When was your last visit to the UK? It sounds like the marketing boys at AWOL really did their homework...

[Katherine]

Airborne alcohol vapors are rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, which is why it is considered such an industrial hazard. It sounds like something a sensible person ought to avoid, but clearly sensible persons are not the ones the marketers are going to be making their money from.

[slbunge]

Blech. The last thing I want when I go to a bar is to be connected via high-tech hookah to some gadget. Pour me a tasty drink and let me take it with me to wander around and socialize. Alcohol uptake as a stand-alone activity doesn't appeal to me at all.

[slkinsey]

Like jsolomon I am also very sceptical that this device will eliminate, or even mitigate a hangover resulting from overconsumption of alcohol. There are several components to a hangover, and several contributing factors. As jsolomon correctly points out, dehydration is a major factor and the dehydrating effect of alcohol is directly proportional to the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream. There is also some evidence that the presence and amount of congeners (non-ethyl alcohols like amyl alcohol, propyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, etc.) contributes to the headache component of a hangover. As for the idea that direct-to-bloodstream delivery of alcohol leads to less stress on the organs and fewer "residual toxins," I don't see how this can possibly be true. The organs of the human body only process alcohol to the extent that the alcohol is able to enter the bloodstream. If alcohol doesn't enter the bloodstream, it doesn't get processed by the liver, etc. In fact, it would pass right through you like the olestra from a bag of no-fat potato chips.

I should point out, by the way, that one of the big advantages of drinking alcohol, as opposed to injecting or breathing it, is that there is an enzyme in the stomach called alcohol dehydrogenase that breaks down a lot of the alcohol before it enters the bloodstream. This means that if someone drinks 1 ounce of 70 proof vodka, only a small percentage of that alcohol will actually enter the bloodstream (the percentage varies according to how much alcohol dehydrogenase that person produces). If, on the other hand, someone injects an equivalent dose, all of the alcohol will go straight into the bloodstream. The AWOL's aerosol delivery to the lungs probably lies somewhere between drinking and injection in terms of alcohol making its way into the bloodstream.

Other than that, it sounds like a modestly interesting novelty. According to their web site the customer selects a spirit, one shot (1.5 oz, I assume) is placed into the device and is nebulized with oxygen over the course of 20 minutes. Their materials also say it shouldn't be used more than twice in a 24 hour period. Given those parameters, it seems unlikely that people who use this device are getting drunk -- and if using the device is in any associated with lessening of hangover effects, it is likely due to the relatively small amount of alcohol consumed. The claimed "euphoric high" I am guessing is more related to breathing pure oxygen than the alcohol mist.

Although I see this device mostly being used by the club set, it does sound like it might be an interesting way to really experience the aromatic components of some liquors. Unfortunately, when I think of some of the liquors that might be most interesting to try this way -- say, Bookers bourbon or Lagavullin scotch -- I'm not sure I'd want to be putting a lot of that stuff on the inside of my lungs.

[phaelon56]

What ever happened to the good old fashioned genteel forms of imbibing.... such as funneling?

Shockingly, I am so old that I missed out on funneling but do recall punching a hole in the bottom of a 16 oz can of beer so the incoming air would expel the beer into ones throat faster when chugging the entire can straight through.

Any way you slice it - drink enough to get drunk and sooner than later a hangover will ensue. I'm no longer even a drinker but sucking vapor from a machine seems entirely contradictory to what the charms and pleasures of imbibing alcohloic bevarages can entail.

[fiftydollars]

But has anyone tried this? I also heard that these would be debuting in New York this summer. Have they?

[KatieLoeb]

This is a bad idea on so many levels I don't even know where to begin.

Suffice to say, no bar owner that I respect would get my business after installing one of these contraptions. The liability issues alone are mind boggling. How about the increase in insurance costs to the establishment? How about the clowns doing the "Stoopid Bar Trix"? Who's going to cover them and at what cost? What about the other innocent patrons that just came to have a drink the old fashioned way? Should they be exposed to the dangers of the equipment and the dangers that ensue from the clientele that use it? The list goes on and on....

[Fritz Brenner]

So instead of keg stands at frat parties, will the new thing be "AWOL! AWOL!"?

[thebartrainer]

I've never seen or heard of this in the UK...

Seeing as many Local Authorities in the UK are in the process of banning happy hours and capping the low prices of discount drinks I find it hard to believe.

In my book the journey from sober to drunk is the fun bit, not going from standing to crawling in one easy blast.

Cheers

[Squeat Mungry]

I'm almost positive I read about this in some magazine several months ago. Maybe Food Arts? So I think this has been going on in London for a while. I wonder if there have been any lawsuits?

Anyway, add my name to the list of those to whom this sounds like a rather silly fad made up by marketers and generally a bad idea.

[JAZ]

Count me in on the "dumb idea" side. I like the taste of alcohol; if I'm going to kill brain cells, dammit, I'm going to do it drinking something that tastes good.

[Note: no brain cells were killed during this post.]

[Jeffy Boy]

Although I don't believe it for a minute, I'm intrigued about the no-hangover claims. If someone could invent a no-hangover beer, they would be rich. I know I'd drink it. Probably a lot of it!

[TJHarris]

My understanding wast that the device debutted in NY recently and the Attorney General of NY is already trying to ban it. One of the greater objections seems to be that Breathalyzers don't work accurately when booze is taken in this fashion.

[ctgm]

I'm almost positive I read about this in some magazine several months ago. Maybe Food Arts? So I think this has been going on in London for a while. I wonder if there have been any lawsuits?

Anyway, add my name to the list of those to whom this sounds like a rather silly fad made up by marketers and generally a bad idea.

←

A couple of points - this vapourizer was not wide spread as far as I am aware and was only put in a few clubs as a gimmic. I have never seen one here in London and I don't think any of my friends have.

But now that is all a bit passé and the latest thing is taking shots through the eyes Again I haven't seen this but heard an eye specialist talking on the radio about what a stupid idea this is.

As I think most agree, what is wrong with taking it orally in liquid form.

[dan]

A couple of points - this vapourizer was not wide spread as far as I am aware and was only put in a few clubs as a gimmic. I have never seen one here in London and I don't think any of my friends have.

But now that is all a bit passé and the latest thing is taking shots through the eyes    Again I haven't seen this but heard an eye specialist talking on the radio about what a stupid idea this is.

As I think most agree, what is wrong with taking it orally in liquid form.

←

I've not heard of anything like this anywhere near in my area, and we've certainly heard nothing coming through the bar in any form of promotional material or even word of mouth. It's the sort of thing the owner would probably want to try for a gimmick, but it's not even been mentioned.

If it indeed has been installed somewhere, then surely it can only have been done for the crack, and not as a serious gesture. It takes the fun out of drinking.

[beans]

dan - the melon man??????