Man Dies After Winning Vodka-Drinking Contest

http://www.reuters.com ^ | Wed November 19, 2003 09:36 AM ET | Reuters 2003

[luv2ndamend]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A vodka-drinking competition in a southern Russian town ended in tragedy with the winner dead and several runners-up in intensive care. "The competition lasted 30, perhaps 40 minutes and the winner downed three half-liter bottles. He was taken home by taxi but died within 20 minutes," said Roman Popov, a prosecutor pursuing the case in the town of Volgodonsk.

"Five contestants ended up in intensive care. Those not in hospital turned up the next day, ostensibly for another drink."

Popov said the director of the shop organizing this month's contest had been charged with manslaughter. He had offered 10 liters of vodka to the competitor drinking the most in the shortest time.

Russians drink the equivalent of 15 liters of pure alcohol per head annually, one of the highest rates in the world. Some experts estimate one in seven Russians is an alcoholic.

© Reuters 2003. All Rights Reserved.

[luv2ndamend]

Wow!! LoL

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Wonder if they cremate him, how long the body will burn for.

[Arthur McGowan]

I don't understand how a supposedly good God can allow things like this to happen to people.

[F14 Pilot]

just a very big LOL~!

[ClearCase_guy]

Well, at least he won. It would be really pointless to only be a runner-up and then die.

[Semper Paratus]

Five contestants ended up in intensive care

Love to see what the wait time is for liver donors in Russia.

[areeves79]

Does he get a Darwin Award for this?

[Labyrinthos]

A vodka-drinking competition in a southern Russian town ended in tragedy with the winner dead and several runners-up in intensive care.

I guess congradulations are in order.

[Xenalyte]

What's God supposed to do, send an angel down to snatch the vodka bottle from his hand, slap him on the nose with a rolled-up newspaper, and holler, "Bad Russian!"?

[finnman69]

Find the BAC for 128 lb. male drinking 12 oz. beer (4.5 percent alcohol by volume) in one hour's time.

A. Convert pounds to kilograms: 128lbs ÷ 2.2046 = 58.06 kg.

B. Find total body water: 58.06 kg. X .58 = 33.675 liters or 33,675 milliliters water

C. Determine the weight in grams of 1 oz. alcohol:

29.57 ml/oz X .79 g/ml = 23.36 grams/oz

D. If we put 1 oz. of alcohol into the subject's total body water, we would have grams of alcohol/ml. of water, e.g.,

23.36 grams ÷ 33,675 milliliter = .0006937 grams alcohol/ml of water

E. We now want to find the alcohol concentration in the blood. Blood is composed of 80.6 percent water; therefore, .0006937 X .806 = .000559 grams alcohol/milliliter blood.

F. Instead of grams alcohol per milliliter blood, we need the figure in terms of grams per 100 milliliter, also known as grams percent. Multiply the .000559 grams alcohol/ milliliter blood by 100, i.e., .000559 grams per milliliter X 100 = .0559 grams alcohol per 100 milliliters, or .0559.

(This is the BAC which 1 oz. of alcohol would produce in a 128 lb male if there were instantaneous consumption, absorption, and distribution of the alcohol throughout the body.)

G. To adjust for the actual amount consumed, one multiplies the above figure by the amount of alcohol in the beverage consumed. Thus, if the 128 lb. male described above consumed a single 12 oz. can of beer containing 4.5 percent alcohol by volume, he would have consumed 12 oz. X .045 = .54 oz. of alcohol. Since 1 oz. of alcohol would produce a BAC of .0559 and .54 oz. of alcohol has been consumed, the actual alcohol level would be .0559 x .54 = .030 BAC for one can of beer.

H. In real life, time must pass for the consumption, absorption, and distribution of alcohol throughout the body. Therefore, we calculate what the actual BAC level would be at the end of one hour after consuming the single can of beer. During this period, the body would have disposed of alcohol through metabolism at a rate characteristic of that individual, primarily his recent frequency and quantity of drinking. Utilizing a conservative (below average) metabolism rate of .012 per hour, we can calculate the BAC level as .0302 - .012 per hour X 1 hour = .0182 BAC at the end of one hour for our 128 lb. male who drank 1 can of beer. (As noted above, the BAC Estimator program rounds-off BAC estimates to two decimal places, thus it would report a calculated BAC of .0182 as .02.) Note that the time of metabolism is calculated from the beginning of drinking, not when the consumption is completed.

[RiflemanSharpe]

At least in this case Darwin is proven right

[elli1]

More proof that the Ruskies don't understand capitalism. It isn't very smart when your best customers end up in intensive care or dead.

[luv2ndamend]

Does he get a Darwin Award for this?

A good contestant!!

[Sloth]

I remember from a toxicology seminar that the estimated human LD50* for ethanol is about a quart.

*LD50 = lethal dose for 50% of a test population.

[tubebender]

No kidding. He would be explosive in the first 48 hours...

[sirchtruth]

I don't understand how a supposedly good God can allow things like this to happen to people.

I don't understand how supposedly good people can disobey God's commandments...and then ask questions like yours.

[AntiGuv]

That would work, would it not?

[Slicksadick]

[boris]

I like that the prosecutor's name is Popov which is the name of a brand of vodka, as I recall...

--Boris

[BluH2o]

Russians drink the equivalent of 15 liters of pure alcohol per head annually ...

Russian vodka is high octane ... typically, at least, 100 proof. Cirrhosis of the liver sends large numbers of Russians to an early grave ... it's close to epidemic proportions in that country.