Estimations of the lethal and exposure doses for representative methanol symptoms in humans

• Published in: Annals of occupational and environmental medicine Vol. 29; no. 1; p. 44
• Main Author: Moon, Chan-Seok
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korea (South) BioMed Central Ltd 02.10.2017; XMLink, Co; BioMed Central; Korean Society of Occupational & Environmental Medicine; 대한직업환경의학회
• Subjects: Acids; Alcohol; Bioindicators; Biological effects; Biomarkers; Blindness; Correlation coefficient; Correlation coefficients; Dose-response relation; Dose-response relationship; Drug dosages; Drug overdose; Exposure; Health aspects; Lethal dose; Metabolism; Metabolites; Methanol; Nervous system; Neuritis; Optic neuritis; Respiration; Review; Risk factors; Skin; Toxicology; Urine; 예방의학; Lethal dose; Exposure; Review; Dose-response relation; Blindness; Methanol
• ISSN: 2052-4374; 2052-4374
• DOI: 10.1186/s40557-017-0197-5

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. 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. 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. 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.