# If I drink enough alcohol can I light my pee?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 21, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226 "2005-06-21T17:28:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tuco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuco)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/1 "2005-06-21T17:28:55Z")
I can’t figure this one out so maybe someone with more knowledge about the human body can enlighten me.
If I were to drink enough alcohol, could there be enough alcohol in my urine to ignite it? I assume most of the alcohol will be filtered out in the kidneys which would transfer it to the bladder then out, but is this correct?
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/2 "2005-06-21T17:36:34Z")
If your piss were alcoholic enough to be lit aflame, it would also be alcoholic enough to get you drunk. So why waste it by lighting it, when you could put it to good use by drinking it?
Or giving it to someone sober so he, too, could enjoy the fun of being drunk?
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### Author:  [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/3 "2005-06-21T17:47:06Z")
Not a doc, but I do know that alcohol content of a water based solution has to be above about 50% to be ignitable.
If the content of your urine is 50%, you’d be dead. (I suspect you’d be dead long before it reached this concentration, as much lower blood alcohol levels are fatal, and the booze has to be in your blood before your kidneys could excrete it, even if they could.))
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### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/4 "2005-06-21T18:00:25Z")
Alcohol in the urine is typically 30-35% greater than in the blood. Having 0.5% in the blood means you’re dead, so it’s pretty safe to say you won’t get more than 1% in your urine. Ain’t gonna light.
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### Author:  [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/5 "2005-06-21T18:52:06Z")
A very, very long time before your kidneys gave out from trying to filter out the alcohol, your liver would have died, trying to metabolize it. Alcohol is a toxin, one the body knows how to fight, because some body processes produce **very small** amounts of it.
And that’s why the most common cause of death by alcohol addicts is liver failure, of one kind or another.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/6 "2005-06-21T19:08:17Z")
> [@Gary T](#):
>
> Alcohol in the urine is typically 30-35% greater than in the blood. Having 0.5% in the blood means you’re dead, so it’s pretty safe to say you won’t get more than 1% in your urine. Ain’t gonna light.
You might be able to achieve something with a turkey baster filled with vodka, but if you do, a flaming penis is likely to be the _least_ of your troubles. Concentrated ethanol is hard on biological tissue.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/7 "2005-06-21T19:09:59Z")
> [@Gary T](#):
>
> Alcohol in the urine is typically 30-35% greater than in the blood. Having 0.5% in the blood means you’re dead, so it’s pretty safe to say you won’t get more than 1% in your urine. Ain’t gonna light.
But you can probably distill it into something you can light.
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/8 "2005-06-21T19:51:51Z")
> [@scr4](#):
>
> But you can probably distill it into something you can light.
I think I saw something in Skymall for this.
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### Author:  [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/9 "2005-06-21T20:03:11Z")
> [@Cervaise](#):
>
> I think I saw something in Skymall for this.
Impress your friend and set your distilled urine on Fire!!! Only $399.95
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### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/10 "2005-06-21T20:11:28Z")
I gotta get me one a them things. Be great for lighting a wet campfire in the morning.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/11 "2005-06-21T22:48:54Z")
Good news! _water_ burns in an atmosphere of fluorine, so you could walk into a room full of fluorine and light your wee; I expect the rest of your body, being made of mostly water, would also catch fire, not to mention the difficulty in breathing, but hey! you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs.
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### Author:  [@Joe\_Mahma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Mahma)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2005, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/12 "2005-06-22T19:31:14Z")
> [@Gary T](#):
>
> Alcohol in the urine is typically 30-35% greater than in the blood. Having 0.5% in the blood means you’re dead, so it’s pretty safe to say you won’t get more than 1% in your urine. Ain’t gonna light.
If you habitually drink heavily, you can develop enough tolerance to run higher blood alchol concentrations. The highest BAC I’ve personally seen was .786%. In someone with no tolerance effect, .400% is fatal. For comparison, .080% iwill get you a DUI here in Pennsylvania.
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### Author:  [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2005, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/13 "2005-06-22T21:05:58Z")
> [@UncleBeer](#):
>
> I gotta get me one a them things. Be great for lighting a wet campfire in the morning.
Not only penis ensues, but _flaming_ penis ensues! Now, that’s a band name. 😉
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### Author:  [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/14 "2005-06-22T21:28:03Z")
> [@scr4](#):
>
> But you can probably distill it into something you can light.
make sure you run it through a Brita water filter first.
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2005, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-drink-enough-alcohol-can-i-light-my-pee/309226/15 "2005-06-22T23:29:04Z")
What’s wrong with the tried and trusted method of lighting your farts?! :rolleyes:
Nobody ever got embarrassing burns from that (well, hardly anybody…)