Alcohol Death May Lead To Charges

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• Alcohol Death May Lead To Charges
• School Board wants Breathalyzer testing at all
  school functions

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Board of Education proposes to use breathalyzer
at school events. Positive test means no
extracurricular activities for a full year.
Board of Education Breathalyzer rule
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Chemistry Class Presentation to Board of
Education

• Chemistry class is asked to make Board
  presentation
• Chemistry of Alcohol
• Breathalyzers
• Policy To Deter Drinking

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Questions Chemistry of Alcohol

• 1 (a) Can someone die of water intoxication
  (drinking too much water)?
• Yes, due to electrolyte imbalance and tissue
  swelling of the brain, which can result in
  seizures, coma and ultimately death unless water
  intake is restricted and a hypertonic saline
  solution is administered.

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Questions Chemistry of Alcohol

• 1 (b) Find an example of someone who died due
  to water intoxication.
• Student Matthew Carrington, 21, died from water
  intoxication, which caused the swelling of his
  brain and lungs on Feb. 2, 2005 after a night of
  hazing.

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Questions Chemistry of Alcohol

• 2. What makes something toxic?
• All substances are poisons
• there is none that is not a poison.
• the right dose differentiates a poison and a
  remedy.
• Paracelsus (1493 - 1541)

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Questions Chemistry of Alcohol

• Scientists often report toxicity using the term
  LD50. What is LD50?
• LD refers to "Lethal Dose" and the 50 refers to
  the dose of toxicant, given all at once, which is
  deadly to 50 of the population.

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Questions Chemistry of Alcohol

• How toxic is methanol (methyl alcohol)?
• Methanol is extremely toxic. As little as 2
  tablespoonfuls can be fatal to a child, and 2 to
  8 oz. can be fatal for an adult.

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Questions Chemistry of Alcohol

• 5 How toxic is ethanol (ethyl alcohol)?
• Ethanol has a relatively low toxicity and is
  often used as a solvent medical drugs.

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Questions Chemistry of Alcohol

• 6 Why then is methanol more toxic than ethanol?
• The answer is partly because ethanol takes
  longer to metabolize then methanol and partly
  because the aldehyde and organic acid formed from
  methanol are more toxic substances than those
  formed from ethanol.

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Questions Chemistry of Alcohol

• 7. Treatment for methanol poisoning
• Ethanol is administered when methanol poisoning
  occurs because alcohol dehydrogenase has a higher
  affinity for ethanol and preferentially reacts
  with the enzyme allowing the methanol time to be
  excreted through the kidneys without being
  metabolized into formaldehyde and formic acid.

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Questions Chemistry of Alcohol

• If someone is in danger of ethanol poisoning,
  what steps should be taken to reduce the chance
  of death?
• Put them in the recovery position and call 911
  immediately for help. Don't try to guess the
  level of drunkenness.

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Questions Chemistry of Alcohol

• 9 (a) What is a Breathalyzer?
• A breathalyzer is a generic name for a device
  used to estimate blood alcohol content levels by
  taking a sample of breath.

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Questions Chemistry of Alcohol

• 9 (b) How does a Breathalyzer work?
• The alcohol concentration in the breath is
  related to that in the blood. The breath-alyzer
  uses a chemical reaction with the chromium ion
  and alcohol that produces a color change. The
  color change is then read by a spectrophotometer
  and used to estimate the blood alcohol level.

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Questions Chemistry of Alcohol

• 10. How reliable is a Breathalyzer?
• How accurate is a Breathalyzer?
• Assuming the breathalyzer is being properly
  cared, recalibrated, that the operator is using
  proper protocols, it does seem to be reliable but
  there are many reasonable doubts concerning the
  accuracy of the machine.

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Questions Chemistry of Alcohol

• 10. Accuracy is how close a measurement comes to
  the true value which in this case is the blood
  alcohol concentration.
• Breath tests can vary 15 from actual blood
  alcohol concentration and even more in some
  populations such as diabetics.

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Molecular Modeling Activity Chemistry of
Alcohol

• Alcohols, Aldehydes and Organic Acids in Three
  Dimensions
• In this activity, you will be making
  ball-and-stick models of methanol and ethanol
  along with their metabolized (oxidized) aldehyde
  and further metabolized (oxidized) organic acid.

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Molecular Modeling

• What similarities did you notice in the alcohols?
• What is the functional group of an alcohol?
• What similarities did you notice in an aldehyde,
  and what is its functional group?
• What about an acid and its functional group?

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Board of Alcohol Presentation

• Groups will be asked to make a PPT presentation
  to the board of education
• There will be no more that 7 groups and no more
  than 5 people per group
• You may choose from
• Chemistry of Alcohol
• Breathalyzers
• Policy to deter drinking
• You may either support or oppose this policy

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Prepare for Board Presentation

• Students should now meet with their partners to
  decide about their portion of the presentation
  they plan to make to the Board of Education.
• Each pair should prepare a presentation of
  about 2 minutes.
• The presentations will be given on Monday and
  will count as a test grade.