Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Methanol has biphasic absorption through the skin (Baranowska-
Dutkiewicz, 1980). In an in vitro study of methanol skin penetration
comparing various species including human (cadaver) the penetration
was reached a plateau within 2-4 hours. Permeability was low for
swine, medium for rabbit, guinea pigs and the monkey, and high for
humans and nude mice (Duprat et al., 1979).
There is no data that suggest that methanol causes allergenic effects.
Methanol was not a sensitizer when tested in guinea pigs (MAK, 1991).
3.5 CONTROLLED HUMAN STUDIES
In a controlled inhalation study, normal subjects were exposed to
200 ppm of methanol for 2 two-hour exposures. Urinary methanol
levels were reported to exceed 10mg/l (Osamus et al., 1974).
In a random double blind study with 26 subjects (who served as their
own control) who were exposed to 200 ppmmethanol or water vapor for
4 hours to evaluate potential neurobehavioral effects of methanol.
Exposure to methanol increased serum concentration and urinary
excretions of methanol, but did not affect serum formate levels, visual,
neuropsychological, or neurobehavioral tests. No significant treatment-
related effects were reported (Chuwers et al., 1995).
Potential neurobehavioral effects of methanol were evaluated in 12
human volunteers exposed by inhalation for 75 minutes as sham
controls or at the TLV of 200 ppm (
250mg/m
3
) methanol. The
following endpoints were examined before, during, and after exposure
to methanol and sham vapors: blood and urinary methanol; plasma
formate; oral temperature; blood pressure; subjective mood, alertness,
fatigue, workload, and symptom scales; spectral analysis of the electro-
encephalogram; visual- and auditory-event-related potentials; contin-
gent negative variation; respiration; cardiac interbeat interval; symbol
digit substitution task; three choice reaction time; Stroop color-word
test; simple reaction time; visual function; critical flicker fusion
frequency; hand steadiness; visual search task; Gamberale reaction
time task; visual tracking task; Sternberg memory task; interval pro-
duction task; and speeded addition task.
