and dealing with small amounts of methanol safely, such as from certain artificial sweeteners or fruit, temporarily resulting in toxic byproducts in the blood stream like formic acid prior to excretion, but you have no natural means of dealing with most of what's in a complex, liquid hydrocarbon like gasoline. Ingestion of 10 ml, however, can cause blindness and 60-100 ml can be fatal if the condition is untreated. Like many volatile chemicals, including ethanol and gasoline, methanol can cause skin, eye, and lung effects if exposed to substantial quantities. Persons chronically exposed to such external quantities are at risk of long-term systemic health effects similar to low-grade methanol poisoning if left untreated. US maximum allowed exposure in air (40 h/week) is 1900 mg/m3 for ethanol, 900 mg/m3 for gasoline, and 1260 mg/m3 for methanol. However, it is much less volatile than gasoline and therefore has lower evaporative emissions, producing a lower exposure risk for an equivalent spill. While methanol offers somewhat different toxicity exposure pathways, the effective toxicity is no worse than those of benzene or gasoline, and methanol poisoning is far easier to treat successfully. One substantial concern is that methanol poisoning generally must be treated while it is still asymptomatic for a full recovery. Inhalation risk is mitigated by a characteristic pungent odor. At concentrations greater than 2,000 ppm (0.2%) it is generally quite noticeable, however, lower concentrations may remain undetected while still being potentially toxic over longer exposures, and may still present a fire/explosion hazard. Again, this is similar to gasoline and ethanol; standard safety protocols exist for methanol and are very similar to those for gasoline and ethanol. The use of methanol fuel reduces the exhaust emissions of certain hydrocarbon-related toxins such as benzene and 1,3 butadiene and dramatically reduces long-term groundwater pollution caused by fuel spills. Unlike benzene-family fuels, methanol will rapidly and non-toxically biodegrade with no long-term harm to the environment as long as it is sufficiently diluted. Fire safety Methanol is far more difficult to ignite than gasoline and burns about 60% slower. A methanol fire releases energy at around 20% of the rate of a gasoline fire, resulting in a much cooler flame. This results in a much less dangerous fire that is easier to contain with proper protocols. Unlike gasoline fires, water is acceptable and even preferred as a fire suppressant for methanol fires, since this both cools the fire