Yet another bit of YouTube lunacy debunked – the concerning “recent phenomenon” amongst adolescents and young adults to use alternate methods of ethanol absorption to decrease detectability, or increase the rate of intoxication.
Such as “tampons soaked in vodka”. In the vagina.
So, how viable is this strategy? A toxicologist from USC investigates this strategy in vitro with a relatively straightforward study – simply measuring the maximum quantity of alcohol that could be absorbed by a tampon prior to insertion. Commercially available tampons, with the applicator attached, maxed out at 15mL. Minus the applicator, tampons absorbed up to 31mL – but obviously lost any insertion potential.
Disregarding the likely local irritation and discomfort of this method of administration, 15mL is clearly not enough to result in any appreciable level of intoxication – even assuming complete absorption across the vaginal mucosa, which is another topic of entirely reasonable uncertainty.
Another media-hyped “danger” that clearly isn’t.
“A New Clandestine Route of Ethanol Administration? Volume of Vodka Absorbed in Commercially Available Tampons. An in vitro study”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24928406