[pct-l] Alcohol fuels toxic?

[Jim Marco]

Ha, ha...yup very true. Even methanol is not super toxic, you get small amounts of it in your diet all the time, more so if you are a vegetarian. Most fruits and vegetables have some trace of it. Isopropyl alcohol is, perhaps, the worst of common alcohols. As a fuel it produces all sorts of sooty byproducts that are not too good to be breathing. With methane (natural gas) and other fuels that require special jets, there is no problem with these. WG is also fairly safe. In an enclosed area, such as a tent, most stoves will produce small percentages of carbon monoxide, also. This is bad because your blood has an affinity for it and permanently bonds with it. Even these small percentages can be bad. There is a lot more to all this stuff. Some of the byproducts from methanol are from the break down in the liver. But your body prefers to use ethanol over methanol. Getting good and drunk will let you excrete most of the methanol, directly, before metabolizing it, if you happen to drink a couple swallows. Kind'a weird....
	My thoughts only . . .
		jdm
    

-----Original Message-----
From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net] On Behalf Of Dan Jacobs
Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2013 6:07 PM
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Subject: [pct-l] Alcohol fuels toxic?

Your damn right they are, if there is any methanol or other toxic ingredients in it.

There have been a couple of mentions that I think might have intended to say that the fumes from burning methanol are toxic. Well, that is true, in that too much of anything will kill you, but I have done some poking around, and cannot find anything that says the result of burning methanol or denatured alcohol is *particularly* toxic. No more than any other source of carbon dioxide would be.

http://bit.ly/12X0idW

As with any combustion, burning, etc., do so in a well ventilated area and try to avoid direct inhalation of the fumes and I'm pretty sure that you'll be just fine.

Dan Jacobs
Washougal
--
"Loud motorcycle stereos save lives."
Motorcycle to hike, hike to motorcycle.
A student of philosophy, eager to display his powers of argument, approached Diogenes, introduced himself and said, "If it pleases you, sir, let me prove to you that there is no such thing as motion."
Whereupon Diogenes immediately got up and left.
_______________________________________________
Pct-L mailing list
Pct-L at backcountry.net
To unsubcribe, or change options visit:
http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l

List Archives:
http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/
All content is copyrighted by the respective authors. 
Reproduction is prohibited without express permission.