Dear Science,

My roommate talked me into making infused “martinis” at home by
squeezing fruit we had from the grocery store into vodka. (Hey, we’re
in a depression. We have no money for the bar.) Hours into the
adventure, I realized we hadn’t washed any of the fruit that went into
our drinks. Nor had either of us washed our hands before squeezing the
fruit. Think of all the samonella outbreaks that have hit recently! Are
we going to end up ill?

Concerned Home Bar Patron

The health of your digestive tract is in the hands of the sterilizing power of alcohol. How good is ethanol at killing
disease-causing bugs? The mouth is the unrivaled place on the human
body for bacteria and viruses. If ethanol can kill off this collection
of scum and villainy, whatever can be found on fruit and your hands
should be easy work. There is a reason most mouthwashes are alcohol
based: High concentrations of ethanol do a pretty damn good job of killing off the nasty bugs. Fifty to sixty percent ethanol
can take out most bacteria. Viruses require a higher punch—80 to
90 percent ethanol.

All that alcohol isn’t just bad for the bugs; it chews up the cells
lining your mouth as well. Sadly, all that mouthwash we’ve been
swilling seems to be causing quite a bit of oral cancer, and only about
half of people who get oral cancer live five years after
diagnosis—that’s with aggressive treatment. Most of us shouldn’t
be using alcohol-containing mouthwash every night.

Well, what of lower concentrations of alcohol? Below 50 percent,
most bugs take it in stride. Horrifying experiments can be done with
elementary-school kids, dirty hands, and bacterial-growth plates
when comparing crappy hand sanitizer (less than 50 percent alcohol) to
the good stuff. The plates planted with unwashed hands show some
colonies of bacteria. Those sanitized with
greater-than-60-percent-alcohol-content gels are clean. Hands sanitized
with the cheap stuff grow lawns of bacteria. Lawns! Ethanol, in low
concentrations, can be a food source for some bugs rather than a cause
of doom.

Vodka is typically 80 proof, a mere 40 percent alcohol—not
enough to kill off disease-causing bacteria or viruses. (Lawns!)
Your infused-vodka drinks were also probably infused with more than
juice; here’s hoping you aren’t barfing as you read this. Still,
Science doesn’t recommend increasing the proof of your liquor next
time. Regular consumption of 180 proof (90 percent alcohol) hooch is
likely to cause barfing and illness through other mechanisms. Next
time, try some soap and water beforehand, and all should be well.

Tipsily yours,

Science

Science question? Send it to
dearscience@thestranger.com.

Jonathan Golob is an actual doctor.

11 replies on “Dear Science”

  1. This doesn’t even take into account the toxins that are produced by these little bug buddies that aren’t denatured by alcohol, heat, or mechanical processes!! Killing the germs and molds after they’ve produced the stuff that will make you sick is kind of like closing the barn door after the horses got out!

  2. You’ve totally forgotten to mention that alcohol kills bacteria (in large part) during evaporation of the alcohol. So if you’re planning on drinking the alcohol (instead of licking the scummy-left-over-juice), the alcohol hasn’t killed most of the bacteria.

  3. Also, it should be mentioned that it’s unlikely that you had Salmonella or E. coli (the bad kind) on your hands (unless you handle a lot of reptiles or poop). The fruit, well…?
    Plus, I think Science here was a bit negligent in not mentioning that it’s okay to be exposed to bacteria. It’s likely a BAD thing that kiddies are scrubbed to a sterile shine. Might be related to the increase in allergies and a decrease in immune health.

  4. On a note unrelated to illness, these people should try making real infused vodka drinks. Instead of squeezing the juice of a fruit into the alcohol, cut the fruit up and leave it to soak for a few weeks. The vodka will prevent rotting and take on the flavor of the fruit. Maybe they don’t have the patience, but it’s totally worth it. You can use anything from citrus to strawberries to kiwi. You can even do candy, like Skittles!

  7. How exactly are you qualified to be giving dental health advice? You fail to name even one source of your irresponsible claim that, “Sadly, all that mouthwash we’ve been swilling seems to be causing quite a bit of oral cancer…Most of us shouldn’t be using alcohol-containing mouthwash every night.”

    Here is what the ADA has to say on the topic:

    https://www.ada.org/prof/resources/topic…

    Even Savage quotes experts in his column when he is addressing a question related to medicine. Sloppy journalism, even for the The Stranger.

  9. RE: the “Lawns!” of bacteria found after using 40%-alcohol hand sanitizer—

    Vodka doesn’t contain Propylene Glycol, Polyacryplic acid, DMDM Hydantoin, Fragrance, Tocophertyl Acetate (Vitamin E), or other “Moisturizers”, like hand sanitizers do. Would not these ingredients be the ‘food’ for the Lawns! of bacteria?
    Does vodka, even at 40% alcohol, leave behind enough other foodstuffs for bacteria to munch once the alcohol is evaporated?

  10. Even if the studies about mouthwash are correct, according to the article I read, it’s the acidity, not the alcohol content, that is the influencing factor in mouth cancer rates.

  11. I also have a feeling the science behind this is somewhat suspect. Rubbing alcohol on your hands for 10 seconds and soaking fruit in alcohol for (presumably) hours can’t really be compared–you’d need to do an actual experiment.

    Even if the alcohol does nothing, my main concern when eating unwashed fruit tends to be the pesticides or chemicals on it, not the bacteria. I typically wash fruits and veggies with just water, and the only things I’ve ever gotten food poisoning from were a few suspect restauraunts

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