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Diss Factsheets
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EC number: 204-699-5 | CAS number: 124-41-4
- Life Cycle description
- Uses advised against
- Endpoint summary
- Appearance / physical state / colour
- Melting point / freezing point
- Boiling point
- Density
- Particle size distribution (Granulometry)
- Vapour pressure
- Partition coefficient
- Water solubility
- Solubility in organic solvents / fat solubility
- Surface tension
- Flash point
- Auto flammability
- Flammability
- Explosiveness
- Oxidising properties
- Oxidation reduction potential
- Stability in organic solvents and identity of relevant degradation products
- Storage stability and reactivity towards container material
- Stability: thermal, sunlight, metals
- pH
- Dissociation constant
- Viscosity
- Additional physico-chemical information
- Additional physico-chemical properties of nanomaterials
- Nanomaterial agglomeration / aggregation
- Nanomaterial crystalline phase
- Nanomaterial crystallite and grain size
- Nanomaterial aspect ratio / shape
- Nanomaterial specific surface area
- Nanomaterial Zeta potential
- Nanomaterial surface chemistry
- Nanomaterial dustiness
- Nanomaterial porosity
- Nanomaterial pour density
- Nanomaterial photocatalytic activity
- Nanomaterial radical formation potential
- Nanomaterial catalytic activity
- Endpoint summary
- Stability
- Biodegradation
- Bioaccumulation
- Transport and distribution
- Environmental data
- Additional information on environmental fate and behaviour
- Ecotoxicological Summary
- Aquatic toxicity
- Endpoint summary
- Short-term toxicity to fish
- Long-term toxicity to fish
- Short-term toxicity to aquatic invertebrates
- Long-term toxicity to aquatic invertebrates
- Toxicity to aquatic algae and cyanobacteria
- Toxicity to aquatic plants other than algae
- Toxicity to microorganisms
- Endocrine disrupter testing in aquatic vertebrates – in vivo
- Toxicity to other aquatic organisms
- Sediment toxicity
- Terrestrial toxicity
- Biological effects monitoring
- Biotransformation and kinetics
- Additional ecotoxological information
- Toxicological Summary
- Toxicokinetics, metabolism and distribution
- Acute Toxicity
- Irritation / corrosion
- Sensitisation
- Repeated dose toxicity
- Genetic toxicity
- Carcinogenicity
- Toxicity to reproduction
- Specific investigations
- Exposure related observations in humans
- Toxic effects on livestock and pets
- Additional toxicological data
- Category name:
- Methylates
Justifications and discussions
- Category definition:
- Methanolates
- Category rationale:
- Cited from OECD, 2006:
The production and use pattern of sodium and potassium methanolates are comparable. The two chemicals have very similar physical and chemical properties. In contact with water they react very fast, quantitative and exothermic to methanol and the corresponding alkali hydroxides (Leal and de Matos, 1991).
X+ -O-CH3 + H2O CH3OH + OH- + X+ (with X= Na+ or K+)
One mol of sodium or potassium methanolate (54.02 g or 70.13 g) yields one mol of methanol (32.04 g) and sodium- or potassium hydroxide (40 g or 56.11 g) respectively.
Due to the very high pKa-value of methanol of 15.5 (Friedrich, Sonnefeld, and Jansen, 1998), the equilibrium is on the side of the reaction products. Toxicological and ecotoxicological studies of methanol and sodium and potassium hydroxide are therefore relevant for these products as well.
The main toxicological characteristic is the corrosivity to skin and mucous membranes that warrants strict exposure controls. The corrosivity also determines the maximum tolerable dose in any animal experiment. The maximum applicable dose level of methanol derived from the methanolates will therefore be considerably lower in experiments with methanolates than in experiments with methanol itself.
In the environment, both effects through pH-changes by the hydroxides, and effects of methanol need to be considered.
Methanol exhibits potential hazardous properties for human health (neurological effects, CNS depression, ocular effects, reproductive and developmental effects, and other organ toxicity). The effects of methanol on the CNS and retina in humans only occur at doses at which formate accumulates due to a rate-limiting conversion to carbon dioxide. In primates, formate accumulation was observed at methanol doses greater than 500 mg/kg bw (which would require a sodium methanolate dose of more than 840 mg/kg bw and a potassium methanolate dose of greater than 1000 mg/kg bw). Repeated exposure to such high dose levels, of methanolates, that are already in the acutely toxic range is highly unlikely due to their corrosive properties. The only exposure situation for sodium and potassium methanolate that could perhaps lead to methanol and formate blood levels resulting in acute neurophysiological and visual disturbances would be accidental dermal exposure to corrosive concentrations that could lead at the same time to an uptake of toxic amounts of methanol through the skin.
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