Methyl alcohol, 99+%

SECTION 2: Hazards identification

EMERGENCY OVERVIEW Appearance clear, colorless liquid. Flash Point 11 deg C. Poison! Cannot be made non-poisonous Causes eye and skin irritation. Danger! Flammable liquid and vapor. May be fatal or cause blindness if swallowed. May cause central nervous system depression. Causes respiratory tract irritation. Harmful if swallowed, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin. Vapor harmful. Target Organs: Eyes, nervous system, optic nerve.

Potential health effects

Eye: Methanol is a mild to moderate eye irritant. Inhalation, ingestion or skin absorption of methanol can cause significant disturbances in vision, including blindness. Skin: Causes moderate skin irritation. Harmful if absorbed through the skin. Prolonged and/or repeated contact may cause defatting of the skin and dermatitis. Methanol can be absorbed through the skin, producing systemic effects that include visual disturbances. Ingestion: Harmful if swallowed. May be fatal or cause blindness if swallowed. Aspiration hazard. May cause systemic toxicity with acidosis. May cause central nervous system depression, characterized by excitement, followed by headache, dizziness, drowsiness, and nausea. Advanced stages may cause collapse, unconsciousness, coma and possible death due to respiratory failure. Inhalation: Methanol is toxic and can very readily form extremely high vapor concentrations at room temperature. Inhalation is the most common route of occupational exposure. At first, methanol causes CNS depression with nausea, headache, vomiting, dizziness and incoordination. A time period with no obvious symptoms follows (typically 8-24 hrs). This latent period is followed by metabolic acidosis and severe visual effects which may include reduced reactivity and/or increased sensitivity to light, blurred, double and/or snowy vision, and blindness. Depending on the severity of exposure and the promptness of treatment, survivors may recover completely or may have permanent blindness, vision disturbances and/or nervous system effects. Chronic: Prolonged or repeated skin contact may cause dermatitis. Chronic exposure may cause effects similar to those of acute exposure. Methanol is only very slowly eliminated from the body. Because of this slow elimination, methanol should be regarded as a cumulative poison. Though a single exposure may cause no effect, daily exposures may result in the accumulation of a harmful amount. Methanol has produced fetotoxicity in rats and teratogenicity in mice exposed by inhalation to high concentrations that did not produce significant maternal toxicity.