Colorado toxicologists say the drug fomepizole works well and is safe to treat poisoning from methanol, the active ingredient in windshield wiper fluid and some household cleaning solutions. The drug also has been approved as a treatment for poisoning from ethylene glycol, the sweet-tasting alcohol in antifreeze. Although methanol itself isn't particularly harmful, the body converts it into products, including formaldehyde and formic acid, that are extremely dangerous.
Methanol poisoning can lead to blindness, heart and vessel damage and death.
At least four people died. Most people treated were adults who either had drunk windshield wiper fluid for harm or a high, but 579 of those treated were young children who accidentally had ingested the chemical, Cobaugh says. Standard emergency room treatment for methanol toxicity has been intravenous ethanol, or drinking alcohol. Ethanol buffers alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme which metabolizes methanol into formic acid. But ethanol has drawbacks.