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Does anyone know a non toxic alcohol wipe alternative to isopropyl alcohol?

Whit

Senior Member
Messages
399
Location
Bay Area
I use isopropyl alcohol wipes to clean the opening of may jtube and the tips of the syringes that get screwed into it. it's not much isopropyl alcohol but it's a little and we're sensitive and it's not supposed to be ingested.

So I'd love to know if there is a way to get alcohol wipes somewhere that use regular alcohol like the kind used in beverages but 70% concentration.

It seems like this would be a fairly common need.

I would also love a source of plain bottled non isopropyl alcohol like used in beverages at 70% (or higher)

Thank you!
Whitney
 

Judee

Psalm 46:1-3
Messages
4,461
Location
Great Lakes
Here's a non-alcohol idea: (???)

https://www.amazon.com/Dynarex-PVP-...rds=betadine+wipes&qid=1638296785&sr=8-3&th=1

I had to have the phlebotomist use these when I was trying one of the medications for Lyme that has to be taken w/o any exposure to alcohol.

They do stain the skin and leave behind some iodine which actually will absorb into the system.

I'm not sure but the iodine may have given me a little more energy that day. ??
 

Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
5,679
Location
Alberta
Alcohol evaporates pretty fast, especially if you warm the item being cleaned, so as long as you wait a minute or so for it to evaporate, I think there should be none entering your body.

Woodworking suppliers sell denatured alcohol (for dissolving shellac), but it does contain a small amount of toxic materials to discourage alcoholics (and avoid booze taxes). Those toxins would be worse than rubbing alcohol, so avoid that option.
 

vision blue

Senior Member
Messages
1,877
Would vodka be high enough proof to kill the bacteria? What about hydrogen peroxide? But if you use it, still use the food grade kind, not the higher concentration one since can do danage with the later if infested. But the food grade one is both safe if you ingest sone and pretty good at killing bugs
i think you have a good point. I would not want isopropyl alcohol in my gi track even if enough time supposedly elapsed for evap. Just On the skin, i hate it when it gets in tge blood test needle.
another possibility- would a good appke cider vinegar be strong enough to kill bugs? For vinegar woukd need to leave it on longer than for peroxide. Otger things that acan be disinectants that are edible are salt and baking soda though peroxide strongest followed i think by vinegar.
None of these woukd be on convenient little pads tho do remember seeing a diy tutorial on how to make your own
 

YippeeKi YOW !!

Senior Member
Messages
16,047
Location
Second star to the right ...
I need some super strong bootleg whiskey :)
About the best we can do in the US is 'Everclear', 100 proof (50% alcohol), and beloved by frat boys everywhere .... it also comes in a 70% alcohol version, but it's against the law, and hard if not impossible to source .... I'm guessing that you might be able to find it on the interweb if you know where to look ....
 

Mary

Moderator Resource
Messages
17,334
Location
Southern California
Last edited:

ljimbo423

Senior Member
Messages
4,705
Location
United States, New Hampshire
YippeeKi YOW !! said:
About the best we can do in the US is 'Everclear', 100 proof (50% alcohol), and beloved by frat boys everywhere .... it also comes in a 70% alcohol version, but it's against the law, and hard if not impossible to source .... I'm guessing that you might be able to find it on the interweb if you know where to look ....


Jim's relpy-
Where is Everclear legal? Everclear 190-proof is legal in many US states, with the exceptions of California, Hawaii, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Washington.

Edit- Here is a link to buy it online in the USA.

https://luxe.digital/brand/everclear/
 
Last edited:

YippeeKi YOW !!

Senior Member
Messages
16,047
Location
Second star to the right ...
Just to clarify, @ljimbo423 was NOT quoting my comment re Everclear, but rather my comment re pure grain alcohol, which would be 200 proof ....

ljimbo423 said:
What about pure grain alcohol?
MY RESPONSE
Virtually impossible to find in the US, at least without toxic additives, intended to make it inhospitable to any kind of ingestion or absorption thru the skin ....


Here's a quote from EHS:
https://www.ehs.com/2014/04/ethanol-versatile-common-and-potentially-dangerous/


"While ethanol is consumed when drinking alcoholic beverages, consuming
ethanol alone can cause coma and death. Ethanol may also be a carcinogenic;
studies are still being done to determine this. However, ethanol is a toxic chemical
and should be treated and handled as such, whether at work or in the home."

I'm not sure how much healthier disinfecting something that comes in contact with sensitive, and possibly irritated, skin which is potentially dangerous in its raw form and also potentially carcinogenic would be, but I'd be cautious .....
 

ljimbo423

Senior Member
Messages
4,705
Location
United States, New Hampshire
Just to clarify, @ljimbo423 was NOT quoting my comment re Everclear, but rather my comment re pure grain alcohol, which would be 200 proof ....

Sorry Yippee! I quoted the wrong post.:ashamed: I edited my post. I just wanted to show there's a 190 proof Everclear available. That, I think, would be strong enough for Whitney's purpose.
 

YippeeKi YOW !!

Senior Member
Messages
16,047
Location
Second star to the right ...
Edit- Here is a link to buy it online in the USA.
Thanks @ljimbo423 for the edit :woot::woot: :thumbsup: :hug: ....

The problem with ordering the super-charged Everclear is that if you live in one of the states that doesn't sell it due to prevailing laws, you cant get it shipped either. You'd have to have it reshipped, and even that's against the law and might be hard to put together, not to mention expensive. And slow.

Apparently, there are still a lot of states that never heard of The Amsterdam Solution .... or the failure that was Prohibition :meh::meh::meh:....
 

GlassCannonLife

Senior Member
Messages
819
I like the idea of the wipes that @Mary posted, they sound like the right thing (didn't check the link though sorry!).

I am confused though, Ron works in a research lab, he can easily access 70 or 100 % ethanol. Is that not possible for some reason? We used to buy 2.5 L bottles for the lab for around $5 from the chemical supply store, for use in histology etc. You can even get ultra pure ethanol (ie very minimal contaminants and a very high standard of testing used) for things like PCR or mass spec. These were more expensive, eg $20 for 1 L but still very usable in this situation if necessary.
 

Whit

Senior Member
Messages
399
Location
Bay Area
I've been told that most food grade alcohol contains sugar and other stuff that would encourage bacterial growth overtime and so is not a good idea for decontamination. Like trying to use really high proof rum or vodka.

Everclear I've been told is very pure, but impossible to get here in CA.

Ron has told me that pure alcohol that is not isopropyl is possible to get but difficult.

I've reliquished to Ron's plan for my syringes of just washing them with soap and water and drying them, which kills everything. And hopefully they don't get touched in the meantime. And I use the mini isopropyl alcohol wipes that are everywhere (the ones in hospitals, etc) to clean my Jtube and I hope that it evaporates before I connect the pump and so nothing actually gets in. They have very little isopropyl alcohol in them, none drips out they are saturated in a specific way so they clean but the alcohol evaporates almost immediately afterwards because there is so little left on the surface being cleaned.

So I'm kind of abandoning the idea. Even though it would be nice. Those Ethyl alcohol wipes in the link above are way too big and I could not use a package that didn't have them individually wrapped, they would all just dry out in a couple days or less.

Thanks!