My first encounter with methanol was as high school student in a pathology lab. In those days glass microscope slides were re-used. They were first cleaned in a mixture of sulphuric and chromic acid, then hand cleaned one by one from a large stainless steel bowl filled with methanol. After diligently cleaning hundreds, perhaps thousands of slides three things happened.
- My fingers were defatted and the side of my thumbs and first fingers were covered with cuts from holding the wet slides and polishing them with tissues.
- I was quite drunk from inhaling the methanol vapour.
- The the methanol was biotransformed in my body to the more toxic formaldehyde. I was unaware of this.
Of course, in the mid 1960’s there was little awareness of chemical toxicity, there were no MSDSs and even if the work has been done in a fume cupboard, i would still have been clearing over the bowl inside the (poorly designed) fume cupboard.
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Ingestion of methylated (methyl alcohol adulterated ethanol) spirits by the local aboriginal population was endemic in those days and some shops used to keep the methylated spirits in the fridge. One shop near the old Darwin Airport actually apologised to a local minister for not having any cold bottles.
A stockman told me that if you coated your throat with milk powder, then methylated spirits tasted like Barossa Pearl, an iconic sparkling wine made by the Orlando winery.
