2017/10/02 by Chan‐Seok Moon · 1 voice
Medicine · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Poisoning and overdose treatments #Aluminum toxicity and tolerance in plants and animals #Microbial metabolism and enzyme function
paper · doi:10.1186/s40557-017-0197-5
openalex publication_date 2017/10/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
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.