Yale Experimenters Prove Alcohol Not Intoxicating in Vaporous Form

Alcohol in liquid form is still the only way to get drunk effectively. According to tests completed recently by two Yale scientists, just breathing in the vapor won't do it.

David Lester and Leon A. Greenberg established that it is "virtually impossible" to inhale enough alcohol fumes to get intoxicated. The two men were conducting tests to discover how fumes would affect men working with alcohol.

The scientists maintain, however, that drinking in a fume-filled room will lead to intoxication more quickly than imbibing one's alcohol in the fresh air.

Even when a man is breathing hard and under great physical exertion, the amount of vapor he could inhale wouldn't get him drunk. As much as 62 percent of the alcohol inhaled is absorbed into the blood stream. The remaining 38 percent is lost through exhalation.