information:extraction
Safety

Symptoms of ethanol overdose may include nausea, vomiting, CNS depression, coma, acute respiratory failure, or death. Levels of even less than 0.1% can cause intoxication, with unconsciousness often occurring at 0.3–0.4%. Death from ethanol consumption is possible when blood alcohol levels reach 0.4%. A blood level of 0.5% or more is commonly fatal. The oral median lethal dose (LD) of ethanol in rats is 5,628 mg/kg. Directly translated to human beings, this would mean that if a person who weighs 70 kg (150 lb) drank a 500 mL (17 US fl oz) glass of pure ethanol, they would theoretically have a 50% risk of dying. The highest blood alcohol level ever recorded, in which the subject survived, is 1.41%.

The DEA has claimed illegal drugs are more deadly than alcohol, citing CDC data from 2000 showing similar death counts despite alcohol's wider use. However, this comparison is disputed; a JAMA article reported alcohol-related deaths in 2000 as 85,000, significantly higher than the DEA's figure of 18,539.