112 comments on An Ethanol Bright Spot
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112 comments on An Ethanol Bright Spot
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This statement about the toxicity of methanol is just an old bromide, or semi-wishful thinking for ethanol boosters (mono-alchoholists). Most creatures can take their methanol as straight as they can take their ethanol. Even the average human contains a few parts per million of methanol.
MTBE is made from methanol, doesn't biodegrade well, and tastes bad in your drinking water. Conflating MTBE issues with methanol is like saying that wood is generally a bad idea because wood smoke can give you lung cancer. :-)
It is not a "bromide" of any age that, in humans, methanol is metabolized to formaldehyde, while ethanol is metabolized to far less toxic acetaldehyde.
The treatment for methanol ingestion is IV ethanol, since the liver preferentially metabolizes the ethanol, while the methanol circulates around until it is passed intact through the kidneys.
MTBE, being an ether, is very unreactive compared to alcohols, so it's quite persistent, ergo a problem in the groundwater.