Xref: utzoo sci.bio:2338 sci.chem:496 sci.med:12456
Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!att!dptg!rutgers!mailrus!ncar!husc6!spdcc!dyer
From: dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.chem,sci.med
Subject: Re: Butane death
Message-ID: <4633@ursa-major.SPDCC.COM>
Date: 21 Sep 89 14:31:28 GMT
References: <89262.194442RAV103@PSUVM.BITNET> <3398@kitty.UUCP>
Reply-To: dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer)
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
Lines: 16

In article <3398@kitty.UUCP> larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman) writes:
>While methane will directly combine with hemoglobin to
>for methemoglobin, which competes with oxyhemoglobin, I suspect that
>the butane molecule is too large to undergo such a substitution with
>hemoglobin.

I had always understood that methemoglobin is simply an oxidized form
of hemoglobin, with the ferrous iron (Fe++) in heme oxidized to the
ferric (Fe+++) state.  I don't see where methane comes in.  Methane
certainly isn't one of the traditionally-enumerated toxic agents which
cause methemoglobinemia, such as nitrites and certain aromatic amines.

-- 
Steve Dyer
dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer
dyer@arktouros.mit.edu, dyer@hstbme.mit.edu