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영어

Methanol is the simplest alcohol that is widely used as a precursor to other commodity chemicals, fuel for vehicles, solvent, and etc. Fatal cases were caused by intentional ingestion or accidental drinking, and accidental exposure happened by absorption through skin or respiratory tracts in workplace. Also, as methanol is known to be contained at the concentration of 50-350 mg/L in wine and 13-106 mg/L in distilled liquor, good care must be taken not to be intoxicated. Methanol is rapidly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, and then metabolized to the toxic substances, formaldehyde and formic acid. In this study, formic acid was analyzed in blood samples from three fatalities due to drinking methanol using ion chromatography. The concentrations of formic acid in heart and peripheral bloods were 415-685 mg/L and 491-582 mg/L, respectively, and the formic acid levels from all the three cases were included within the lethal concentration range.