What Happens If You Drink Rubbing Alcohol? Why Your Body Turns It Into Acetone, and What to Do

Rubbing alcohol looks exactly like water, and the word “alcohol” is right there on the label. That is the whole problem. The alcohol in it is not the one in a beer. It is isopropyl alcohol, a solvent, and the body handles it in a way that makes it hit harder and stay longer.

This guide explains what actually happens after someone swallows rubbing alcohol, why the chemistry makes it different from drinking alcohol, why it is unusual even among the poisonous alcohols, and what poison centers tell you to do. We sell isopropyl alcohol in bulk as a cleaning and industrial solvent, so we read its safety data closely; everything medical here is relayed from poison centers and the clinical literature, with sources at the end.

Last reviewed 10 November 2026 against the sources cited below. This is a chemistry and safety explainer, not medical, legal or regulatory advice. If someone has swallowed rubbing alcohol, do not wait for symptoms: contact Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 (free, 24 hours a day in the United States) or use the webPOISONCONTROL online tool.

What happens if you drink rubbing alcohol?

Drinking rubbing alcohol makes a person drunk quickly, irritates the stomach and gut, and in larger amounts can depress breathing and blood pressure to dangerous levels. Poison Control describes the first stage plainly: “Someone who has intentionally swallowed rubbing alcohol can become drunk.” It goes on: “Symptoms might include sedation, slurred speech, unsteadiness, and vomiting.” MedlinePlus, the National Library of Medicine’s encyclopedia, agrees: “Drinking isopropanol will most likely make you very drunk.”

The gut takes a beating at the same time. Poison Control calls isopropyl alcohol extremely irritating to the digestive tract, where it can cause vomiting, diarrhea, pain and bleeding in the stomach and intestines, and warns: “This can lead to dehydration, low blood pressure, shock, and coma.” MedlinePlus lists what drinking large amounts can lead to: coma and possibly brain damage, internal bleeding, breathing difficulty and kidney failure.

It also gets to work fast. The 2014 review by the New Zealand National Poisons Centre, which screened 232 published papers, found that “Isopropanol is rapidly absorbed following ingestion with peak plasma concentrations occurring within 30 min.” The breath often takes on a sweet, fruity smell. That smell is acetone, and it is the clue to the rest of the story.

Why does rubbing alcohol hit harder than drinking alcohol?

Isopropyl alcohol is a stronger depressant of the brain and nervous system than ethanol, the alcohol in drinks, and the body clears it more slowly. The Missouri Poison Center puts the reason in one line: “This is because it is much more potent than ethanol.” The two molecules are close cousins. Ethanol has two carbon atoms; isopropyl alcohol has three, with the alcohol group sitting on the middle one. That small change in shape is enough to change both how strongly it acts on the brain and what the liver can do with it.

There is also the concentration. A typical beer is around 5% ethanol. Typical rubbing alcohol is 70% isopropyl alcohol, and MedlinePlus notes that some products run “up to 99%”. A mouthful of rubbing alcohol therefore carries many times more alcohol than a mouthful of beer, of a type the body handles worse. And because it is clear, the Missouri Poison Center points out, “It is clear, like water, which leads to accidental ingestion”.

The short version: rubbing alcohol is not a strong drink. It is a solvent that happens to be an alcohol, and it is more potent, more irritating and longer-lasting in the body than ethanol.

What does your body turn rubbing alcohol into?

The liver turns isopropyl alcohol into acetone, the same solvent sold for nail polish removal and industrial cleaning. The enzyme that does it is alcohol dehydrogenase, the same one that starts breaking down a glass of wine. The 2014 review states that “Isopropanol is metabolized by alcohol dehydrogenase to acetone”, along with smaller amounts of other products.

Here is the chemistry that makes isopropyl alcohol different. Its alcohol group sits on a middle carbon, which makes it a secondary alcohol. When a secondary alcohol is oxidized, it becomes a ketone, and acetone is the simplest ketone there is. A ketone is a chemical dead end for this pathway: the liver cannot easily oxidize it further into an acid. Methanol and ethylene glycol are different. Their alcohol groups sit at the end of the carbon chain, and the same enzyme oxidizes them step by step into acids.

Acetone also leaves slowly. Per the 2014 review: “The elimination half-life of isopropanol is between 2.5 and 8.0 h, whereas elimination of acetone is slower with a half-life following isopropanol ingestion of between 7.7 and 27 h.” Some of it is breathed out, which is the fruity breath, and the rest leaves in urine.

If the body makes acetone, is acetone what makes you sick?

Mostly not. Most of the harm comes from the isopropyl alcohol itself, not from the acetone it becomes. That surprises people, because acetone sounds worse. The 2014 review is careful: “While the clinical effects are thought to be mostly due to isopropanol, acetone may also contribute.” The acetone is real and lingers, and it is what shows up on the breath and in blood tests, but the deep sedation, low blood pressure and slowed breathing track the parent alcohol.

This makes isopropyl alcohol the odd one out among the poisonous alcohols. A 2008 review in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology sums up the group (methanol, ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol and propylene glycol) this way: “The effects of these substances, except for isopropanol and possibly alcoholic ketoacidosis, are due to their metabolites”. In other words, methanol and antifreeze become far more dangerous after the liver works on them. Isopropyl alcohol is most dangerous before.

That has a practical consequence. For methanol and ethylene glycol, hospitals can give a drug called fomepizole that blocks alcohol dehydrogenase, so the liver stops making the toxic acids. For isopropyl alcohol, the clinician reference WikEM says there is “No role for fomepizole or ethanol”, and explains why: “Blockade of alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) will prolong intoxication”. Blocking the enzyme would keep the isopropyl alcohol, the harmful part, in the body longer. Care is supportive instead: breathing, blood pressure, fluids and monitoring, with dialysis kept for rare, severe cases.

How is it different from methanol or antifreeze poisoning?

All three are alcohols the liver attacks with the same enzyme, but only isopropyl alcohol stops at a ketone; methanol and ethylene glycol go on to acids that do the real damage. That is why their blood tests look different, too. The 2008 review notes that the other toxic alcohols cause a high anion gap metabolic acidosis, while “isopropanol intoxication presents with hyperosmolality alone”: the alcohol itself shows up in the blood, but without the acid.

Sources: Kraut and Kurtz (2008); Slaughter et al. (2014); WikEM toxic alcohol entries, which list calcium oxalate crystals in urine for ethylene glycol. Ethanol row is standard metabolism, included for comparison.

The two can even interfere with each other. A 2017 case report in Clinical Nephrology described a patient who drank an alcohol-based hand rub containing both isopropyl alcohol and methanol, and found no acidosis “presumably because formic acid production is blocked by isopropanol, which inhibits alcohol dehydrogenase.” The isopropyl alcohol hid the methanol, which is exactly why poison centers want to know every product involved.

What should you do if someone drank rubbing alcohol?

Call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 right away, or call 911 if the person has collapsed, is having a seizure, is struggling to breathe or cannot be woken. Do not make them vomit. Poison Control’s advice for anyone unsure is short: “Don’t guess what you should do.”

NIOSH, the federal workplace safety agency, gives the same instruction in its pocket guide for isopropyl alcohol, which lists “Rubbing alcohol” among its synonyms. Under swallowing, it says: “Medical attention immediately”.

How much rubbing alcohol is dangerous?

There is no amount we will call safe, and you will not find a “safe dose” here. Poison centers judge each case on the amount, the percentage, the person’s size and how long ago it happened. MedlinePlus puts it this way: how well someone does depends on the amount swallowed and how quickly they get help.

Here is what the sources do say. Poison Control notes that “In general, swallowing a sip of rubbing alcohol leads to few symptoms.” Children are the most common cases, but usually swallow little: Poison Control says they don’t drink much because of its strong, unpleasant taste. The 2014 review found that “The majority of isopropanol exposures are unintentional and occur in children less than 6 years of age.” Deliberate drinking, including on a dare or a livestream, is a different situation, because the amounts are larger. Call either way; the specialists would rather hear about a sip than miss a swallow.

Can you get poisoned by rubbing alcohol without drinking it?

Yes. It can be breathed in and absorbed through the skin, which is why soaking a child in it to bring down a fever is dangerous. Poison Control describes people using towels or blankets soaked in rubbing alcohol to reduce fever and warns: “This does not reduce fever and can easily lead to rubbing alcohol poisoning.” It explains that for years these cases were blamed on fumes, but “recent evidence shows that rubbing alcohol can also be absorbed through the skin.” MedlinePlus says: “It is dangerous to give a child a sponge bath with isopropanol to reduce a fever.”

The vapor matters at work, too. NIOSH sets a recommended exposure limit of 400 ppm averaged over a workday and lists irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, drowsiness, dizziness and headache as symptoms. Use it with ventilation, and remember it burns: NIOSH lists a flash point of 53 °F, and Poison Control warns that rubbing alcohol “will burn if ignited and can reach temperatures above 1000 F.”

Is drinking hand sanitizer the same as drinking rubbing alcohol?

It can be worse, because you often cannot tell which alcohol is in it. Many hand sanitizers are made with ethanol, some with isopropyl alcohol, and the FDA has warned about products that are “contaminated with potentially toxic types of alcohol.” The FDA’s consumer guidance is blunt: “Do not drink hand sanitizer.” It adds: “Drinking even a small amount of hand sanitizer can cause alcohol poisoning in children.” The 2017 hand-rub case above is the reason the label matters: a product with methanol in it needs a very different hospital response than one with isopropyl alcohol alone. If someone swallowed one, have the bottle in hand when you call Poison Help.

How we sell isopropyl alcohol