Potassium Methoxide Methanol

SECTION 2: Hazards identification

Appearance Colorless liquid with occasional precipitate formation, methanol odor. Flash Point 52 deg F Danger! Unstable Reactive, Corrosive! Poison! May be fatal or cause blindness if swallowed. Vapor harmful. Flammable liquid and vapor. Harmful if swallowed, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin. Causes eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritation. May cause central nervous system depression. Cannot be made non-poisonous. Target Organs: Eyes, nervous system, optic nerve. MIDI, Inc. Chemicals 1

Potential health effects

Eye: Causes eye burns. May cause painful sensitization to light. 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 skin burns. May be absorbed through the skin in harmful amounts. 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: Causes burns. May be fatal or cause blindness if swallowed. Aspiration hazard. Cannot be made non-poisonous. May cause gastrointestinal irritation with nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. 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. May cause cardiopulmonary system effects. Inhalation: May be harmful if inhaled. Material is extremely destructive to the tissue of the mucous membranes and upper respiratory tract. 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 the 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 tetratogenicity in mice exposed by inhalation to high concentrations that did not produce significant maternal toxicity.