This is sulpher compounds released when you cut through the cell walls. The compoundsevaporate into the air and, when mixed with the water on the surface of your eyeballs, form sulfuric acid.
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Are swimming goggles sufficient protection against airborne sulfur compounds from onions? Or are they not sufficiently airtight?
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No, but if you cut them while running cold water on them, it cuts down the tears immensely.
I don’t know about Listerine, but capsaicin can burn skin. My father, a doctor, remarked on seeing one of those Capzaisin commercials (or whatever the brand name is - apparently its marketed towards joint pain and arthritis) that he’d treated some people that had used that product for burns. The capsaicin that it contained had burned them.
You can build up a tolerance to a wide variety of different substances which are affecting your body as various metabolic pathways are shifted around and up/down regulated, your body tends to do this in response to chronic exposure to a substance and your response to those substances will start to return to normal after a period of time, this is what is responsible for for the Alcoholics resistance to alcohol (it is these metabolic changes that many of the withdrawal symptoms associated with drug use.
You can also develop an immune response to a lot of complicated toxins such as snake venoms and this gives some degree of protection, paradoxically these immune responses can cause problems in themselves. This is the reason poison ivy exposure get’s worse over time, the rash occurs as a result of an innapropriate immune response to the plant proteins and therefore gets worse over time with each repesated exposure, some people will not develop the immune response and will remain unaffected.
Please excuse the terrible spelling and grammar in the previous post.
Personally I have noticed that since I began wearing contact lenses I am much less affected by onions.
As a result of watching/reading too many true life mysteries, I thought I’d heard of cases of people building up an immunity to arsenic so they could poison someone with it. But after doing a little looking, I couldn’t find an actual case where this happened (other than in fiction) but two sources I found say that people building tolerances to it have been documented.
From here:
From here:
Speaking of building up tolerance to alcohol, I can report anecdotally that I seem to be (relatively) immune to the effects of certain drinks, but get drunk quickly when I have other drinks, even though this seems to be physically/chemically impossible (if the drinks contain the same amount of alcohol). For example, for the past few years, my usual order at a bar has been a gin and tonic, and it seems like I can now drink them like water without getting drunk, but if I threw another sort of drink into the mix (say, a couple of rum and cokes), I’ll unexpectedly get knocked on my ass. The alcohol content of a G&T vs. R&C is probably roughly the same, so…is this just my imagination?
I know a guy who can drink most of a 750ml bottle of Jack over the course of a night and still stumble back to his apartment.
Give him about four beers and he gets reeeeal glazed over and falls asleep on the couch. How’s that for a difference of tolerance?
Don’t worry about it too much. The Internet has helped us build up a tolerance.
What about bullets?
Wouldn’t the molecules that are doing the irritating still get into the nose and irritate it? As we all know - nose irritants can cause your eyes to water (read: pulling out nosehairs)
I’ve heard that holding a piece of bread in your mouth helps. Keeps the irritants in the air from making it to your nose and eyes.
The cold water - and advice from a pro - seems to make sense. The water would keep the molecules from becomming airborne so quickly.
It’s possible he’s reacting to the hops in the beer, rather than the alcohol. Hops make many people sleepy.
Regarding reactions to changing drinks, I recall reading somewhere that some accidental drug overdoses may occur when the user has built up a resistance to the drug, but then takes the same dose under significantly different circumstances (e.g., a different time of day.) Apparently, the body can get used to a certain routine regarding the drug use, and actually begins to physically respond to that routine even before the drug hits the system. Change the routine and the same amount hits an unprepared body. Maybe something like that is happening when you change drinks. I really wish I had a cite, because it’s an interesting idea.
That would explain why O’Doul’s makes me feel bloated & sleepy but not drunk.
I’ve heard of an least once similar incident with iocane powder. [/end pointless cultural reference]
And I meant to add useful info:
Capsaicin does not in fact physically harm tissue, so there’s no way to be burned or actually damaged by it. It stimulates nerve endings, which makes it feel like something is burning, but no real damage is done.
Evidently, repeated application can ‘fatigue’ nerve endings, so they don’t transmit pain signals as well. Thus it seems eminently possible to build up a resistance, at least in the short term (days at a time).
I suspect for capsaicin, there’s also some mental tolerance built up – as you get used to the feeling, you get more comfortable with it, and can mentally tolerate it more – particularly as there’s no real damage done.
you guys! you guys! this is SO important that i had to register to tell you all:
you know how water will stay in a straw if you hold your finger over one end of it? and it will run right out if release your finger?
the same principle applies to onions! do NOT cut one end off and none (fewer) of the juices/vapors will run out and make you cry!
try it! it’s amazing! you can practically get your face inches from it and barely notice.
shame on all you chefs for not knowing this!
!!
I don’t know how you would build a tolerance to Listerine. You don’t ingest it! If it tastes bad, it always will. Tolerance is your body adapting to chemicals put into it and compensating for them better and better each time.
I personally have a friend who drinks over a full liter of alcohol every single day. He can and does on occasion finish a full 1.75 of booze (though he’ll fall asleep in odd places after that amount). Types don’t matter for him. Whisky, brandy, vodka, rum, anything. You’d never know he was drunk until he had consumed more alcohol at one time that I could in a full weekend.
I’d imagine that you could build a tolerance to some level for anything, but you’d still have adverse effects on yourself. Needles hurt to me, but a diabetic will tell you they don’t feel it at all. You can even build a tolerance to pain for some sorts.