What Dr. Monte discovered is that methanol is converted by the body into formaldehyde, a highly toxic substance known to cause cancer in humans. He also uncovered the fact that methanol metabolizes in organs of the body other than just the liver which, based on all available evidence, is directly responsible for causing what Dr. Monte has termed "diseases of civilization" (DOC).
"Methanol is particularly dangerous to humans, more so than any other animal," says Dr. Woodrow C. Monte on his website WhileScienceSleeps.com. "When humans consume low doses of methanol it is metabolized directly into formaldehyde which is a cancer producing agent of the same level of danger as asbestos and plutonium."
Where Dr. Monte's research diverts from the mainstream view of methanol's toxicity has to do with the way dietary methanol is processed by the body. Rather than dissipate as is widely believed, methanol-induced formaldehyde tends to lodge itself into certain areas of the body that avoid filtering through the liver -- and these are the same areas of the body where DOCs tend to appear.
"Once methanol runs the gauntlet of first-pass metabolism, its detoxification is no longer exclusive to the liver," writes Dr. Monte in his study. "Methanol transports its potential to become formaldehyde past normal biological barriers in the brain and elsewhere that environmental formaldehyde itself cannot usually penetrate ... [formaldehyde] can then be produced within the arteries and veins, heart, brain, lungs, breast, bone, and skin."