Submitted by Chairman_Mittens t3_y96dfg in askscience
CrateDane t1_it6m4w8 wrote
Reply to comment by mohelgamal in Why does alcohol kill bacteria, but not the cells that our bodies are composed of? by Chairman_Mittens
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> No there are a lot of different types of cells, bacteria has much simpler cell walls so alcohol dissolves them easily.
Human cells do not even have cell walls, unlike bacteria.
If you're thinking of the cell membrane, then I wouldn't say the bacterial membrane is any simpler. The lipids used are slightly different, but that's not a question of simplicity or complexity. And for example Gram negative bacteria would have two membranes, which is more complex than the single membrane of human cells (though we have additional membranes around some organelles).
In any case, alcohol would damage our cells just as easily as bacterial cells. If they were exposed to the same concentration.
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