[Eric A. Taylor (OP)]

I wasn't surprised that alcohol can't be absorbed through the skin. After all skin is very good at blocking environmental toxins. But it is expelled in the breath. It's why the breath machines work so well and are so tough to beat with things like mints and mouthwash. The alcohol on your breath, after you've been drinking, is coming from your lungs, not your mouth. If there is a lot of alcohol vapor in the room with you, can you take in enough to get drunk?

I've noticed, with myself that if I get a good whiff of hard liquor that it makes me a little dizzy, but the effect is very transitory.

[RD]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_without_liquid

[CliffordK]

Ethanol is only a moderately volatile solvent.  I think you'd have to work hard to get enough airborne to make a difference.

Certainly other solvents such as those in glues & paints, as well as methanol are easily absorbed through the lungs, and can cause mental changes.

I'm just trying to imagine a situation with high amounts of ethanol in the air.  Perhaps something a bartender experiences.

[Eric A. Taylor (OP)]

Ethanol is only a moderately volatile solvent.  I think you'd have to work hard to get enough airborne to make a difference.

Certainly other solvents such as those in glues & paints, as well as methanol are easily absorbed through the lungs, and can cause mental changes.

I'm just trying to imagine a situation with high amounts of ethanol in the air.  Perhaps something a bartender experiences.

I had a cousin who worked in a distillery in Kentucky. He fell into a vat of whiskey and drowned. His co-workers tried to rescue him but he fought them off bravely.