Scientists seem to be split on the issue.
Manganese, produced by the burning of MMT, can be quite toxic in high doses, and Dr Ellen Silbergeld , an Epidemiologist at the University of Maryland and consultant to the Environmental Defence Fund, thinks this should be cause for great caution. Grace Wood , a Senior Hazardous Chemicals Evaluator with Health Canada, who looked closely at the issue of manganese from MMT, thinks there is no cause for concern. But Dr Donna Mergler , a Physiologist and a Researcher in Environmental Health at the University of Quebec in Montreal, thinks that Health Canada's report might be flawed, and that the elderly and children might be vulnerable to manganese. Dr Joseph Zayed says we may be holding manganese up to an unreasonable standard of safety. Bob McDonald discusses why we may be over-hyping some science.