I’m not sure exactly what they were training for, but it is probably pretty safe to say that they failed.
It was supposed to have been mandated by law that ethylene glycol-based antifreezes contain a bittering agent to warn potential consumers. That and the typical greenish color should provide ample notice.
Do military antifreeze sources follow different regulations?
The article says they were on a field training exercise and were prohibited from drinking alcohol.
I remember, years ago, a soldier friend showing me the “food coloring and liquor in a listerine bottle” trick that is also, apparently, popular for sneaking booze onto cruise ships.
I bet they thought they were drinking contraband booze that had been disguised as antifreeze.
I’m still trying to figure out what they drank, the articles only say “ethylene glycol” but that the source of said chemical is still under investigation. I’d be surprised if it was antifreeze and not some other source, but not that surprised I guess.
I was told that one treatment for glycol ingestion was alcohol. That the body would metabolize the alcohol instead of the glycol. If that’s true maybe they ended up getting their alcohol after all.
The body produces the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase. It converts grain alcohol to acetaldehyde, which is further broken down by other processes to acetic acid, which is excreted in the urine. The same enzyme converts ethylene glycol to glycoaldehyde, which is further converted to glycolic acid, which is poisonous.
The body can make only so much alcohol dehydrogenase. Giving the patient ethanol causes some of the enzyme to work on that, which slows the production of glycolic acid. This gives time to eliminate the ethylene glycol by other means, such as dialysis.
That reminds me of the scene in Mister Roberts where Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, and William Powell make “scotch” from grain alcohol, Coca-Cola, iodine, and hair tonic. The first time I saw that, I thought, “That looks like it would probably work.” But I wouldn’t try it.
Thank you for the detailed explanation.
What kind of punishment are they likely to get?
Its…it’s…green…
I recall, back when I went to Pennsic, that some people would break open glow tubes (often green) and add that to their alcoholic beverages. The drinks were not only green, they glowed in the dark. So the color might not have been as much of a warning as you’d think.
I know from the one time I did it, that besides containing broken glass (I can’t recall the name of the second chemical held in a small glass tube inside the plastic tube) the chemicals smell absolutely terrible. I can’t imagine why somebody would want to drink them.
They were drunk? I dunno. There was a blue version, too. Bear in mind, this was 30 years ago.
Should be hydrogen peroxide