Estimations of the lethal and exposure doses for representative methanol symptoms in humans.
10.1186/s40557-017-0197-5
- Author:
Chan Seok MOON
1
Author Information
1. Department of Industrial Health, Catholic University of Pusan, #57, Oryundae-ro, Geumjeong-gu, Busan, 46252 South Korea. csmoon@cup.ac.kr.
- Publication Type:Review
- Keywords:
Methanol;
Lethal dose;
Blindness;
Dose-response relation;
Exposure;
Review
- MeSH:
Blindness;
Humans*;
Methanol*;
Optic Neuritis
- From:Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
2017;29(1):44-
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
BACKGROUND: The aim of this review was to estimate the lethal and exposure doses of a representative symptom (blindness) of methanol exposure in humans by reviewing data from previous articles. METHODS: Available articles published from 1970 to 2016 that investigated the dose-response relationship for methanol exposure (i.e., the exposure concentration and the biological markers/clinical symptoms) were evaluated; the MEDLINE and RISS (Korean search engine) databases were searched. The available data from these articles were carefully selected to estimate the range and median of a lethal human dose. The regression equation and correlation coefficient (between the exposure level and urinary methanol concentration as a biological exposure marker) were assumed from the previous data. RESULTS: The lethal human dose of pure methanol was estimated at 15.8–474 g/person as a range and as 56.2 g/person as the median. The dose-response relationship between methanol vapor in ambient air and urinary methanol concentrations was thought to be correlated. An oral intake of 3.16–11.85 g/person of pure methanol could cause blindness. The lethal dose from respiratory intake was reported to be 4000–13,000 mg/l. The initial concentration of optic neuritis and blindness were shown to be 228.5 and 1103 mg/l, respectively, for a 12-h exposure. CONCLUSION: The concentration of biological exposure indices and clinical symptoms for methanol exposure might have a dose-response relationship according to previous articles. Even a low dose of pure methanol through oral or respiratory exposure might be lethal or result in blindness as a clinical symptom.
