Indoor air guide values for methanol

The German Committee on Indoor Air Guide Values (-AIR) derives indoor air guide values to evaluate concentrations of substances in indoor air with regard to public health risks. For the health evaluation of methanol, acute inhalation studies on humans and studies on laboratory animals on developmental toxicity are available. As it can be assumed for the endpoint of developmental toxicity that humans are significantly more sensitive than test animals, the acute effects on humans are evaluated by the -AIR as relevant endpoints to the assessment. From an acute inhalation study on volunteers, a-NOAEC of 266 mg/m(3) was determined after exposure for several hours. According to the -AIR basic scheme, a value of 3 is used as the default value for estimating a-LAEC from the -NOAEC. Based on these data, a factor of 20 (10 for interindividual variability and 2 for the particular sensitivity of children) results in a short-term guide value-II (60 min) of 40 mg/m(3) and a short-term guide value I (60 min) of 13 mg/m(3) for methanol in indoor air.

Automated summary

The German Committee on Indoor Air Guide Values establishes guide values to evaluate indoor air concentrations in terms of public health risks. For methanol, acute effects on humans are evaluated based on inhalation studies and developmental toxicity studies on laboratory animals. A short-term guide value of 40 mg/m³ and 13 mg/m³ for methanol in indoor air were determined based on these studies.