Defining a tolerable concentration of methanol in alcoholic drinks

Human and Experimental Toxicology - Tập 20 Số 11 - Trang 563-568 - 2001
Alan J. Paine1, A.D. Dayan2
1IRG in Toxicology, King's College London, London SE1 9NN, UK; Department of Pharmacy, King's College London, Franklin Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NN, UK
2IRG in Toxicology, King's College London, London SE1 9NN, UK

Tóm tắt

Methanol, a potent toxicant in humans, occurs naturally at a low level in most alcoholic beverages without causing harm. However, illicit drinks made from “industrial methylated spirits” [5% (v/v) methanol:95% (v/v) ethanol] can cause severe and even fatal illness. Since documentation of a no-adverse-effect level for methanol is nonexistent in the literature a key question, from the public health perspective, is what is the maximum concentration of methanol in an alcoholic drink that an adult human could consume without risking toxicity due to its methanol content? Published information about methanol-intoxicated patients is reviewed and combined with findings in studies in volunteers given small doses of methanol, as well as occupational exposure limits (OELs), to indicate a tolerable (“safe”) daily dose of methanol in an adult as 2 g and a toxic dose as 8 g. The simultaneous ingestion of ethanol has no appreciable effect on the proposed “safe” and “toxic” doses when considering exposure over several hours. Thus, assuming that an adult consumes 425-ml standard measures of a drink containing 40% alcohol by volume over a period of 2 h, the maximum tolerable concentration (MTC) of methanol in such a drink would be 2% (v/v) by volume. However, this value only allows a safety factor of 4 to cover variation in the volume consumed and for the effects of malnutrition (i.e., folate deficiency), ill health and other personal factors (i.e., ethnicity). In contrast, the current EU general limit for naturally occurring methanol of 10 g methanol/l ethanol [which equates to 0.4% (v/v) methanol at 40% alcohol] provides a greater margin of safety.

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Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Human and Experimental Toxicology

Tập 20 Số 11

563-568

Thông tin tác giả