Thanks Mr Science! :-)
Seriously, I learned something, thanks.
Linda
Alex Avery wrote:
> Uh, it's not pretty nasty to be dumping on your lawn, dude. They use it at
> airports to deice planes--in huge quantities. Ethylene glycol is harmless
> to plants and soil bacteria. It's not a persistant pollutant, it is
> readily digested by lots of stuff, so dumping it on your lawn is a way to
> let nature break it down. The EPA says "Ethylene glycol appears to
> represent a low hazard to the environment" for the above reasons. It takes
> over 100 grams/milliliter to be toxic to fish.
>
> The reason ethylene glycol is toxic to humans is not because it itself is
> toxic but because of metabolites produced after your body breaks it
> down--Glycoaldehyde, Glycolic Acid, Glyoxylic acid, and Oxalate. The
> treatment for EG poisoning is ethyl alcohol (hard liquer)--lots of it! The
> ethyl alcohol competes for the enzymes in your body that digest ethylene
> glycol into the toxic by-products.
>
> For you really die-hard science geeks (like me) here are the details of
> mammalian ethylene glycol toxicity: The metabolites inhibit oxidative
> phosphorylation, sulfhydrl-containing enzymes, and protein synthesis.
> Glycolic acid is the major cause of the metabolic acidosis that is seen in
> ethylene glycol toxicity, although glyoxylic acid also may contribute.
> Toxicity from ethylene glycol is produced from the above metabolites and
> the fact that they cause a severe acidosis, as well as from the fact that
> oxalate precipitates with calcium to produce widespread tissue injury in
> the kidney, brain, liver, blood vessels, and pericardium. Hypocalcemia may
> also result.
>
> Sorry for the length but I really hate misinformation and love scientific
> stuff like this.
> Alex Avery
> Director of Research
> Hudson Institute
> Center for Global Food Issues
> '78 280Z and caretaker of dad's SRL311-7278
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