I recently learned that I am highly allergic to Glycerine. This being said glycol and glycerine sound a lot a like- I was curious to know if I need to stay away from it as well. For now I just have been. If anyone knows, please let me know.

Thanks :)

Madison

Glycol is a oil based product used in anti freeze and glycerine is an animal fat product used in soap making, very dissimilar products but ask your allergist to test you if you are concerned.

Chemically, a glycol is a molecule containing two alcohol groups (occasionally called a "di-alcohol" or "di-ol". Ballengerb1 is referring to ethylene glycol. In the following, the -OH group is the alcohol group. Ethylene glycol is properly called 1,2-ethanediol (pronounced ethane-di-ol).

CH2(OH)-CH2(OH)

There are plenty of other glycols (propylene glycol, for instance CH3-CH(OH)-CH2(OH). Propylene glycol is properly called 1,2-propanediol (pronounced propane-di-ol)

Glycerine (also known as glycerol) is a tri-alcohol or "tri-ol".

CH2(OH)-CH(OH)-CH2(OH)

It is a chain of three carbon atoms with an alcohol group attached to each carbon. The chemical name for glycerine is 1,2,3-propanetriol (pronounced propane-tri-ol).

Sensitivity to a particular di-ol might suggest a tendency to be sensitive to other di-ols or tri-ols and vice-versa, but it's not necessarily so. Molecular shapes are different enough that they might not trigger allergic responses.

Hi, dirtyhippie!

You've started two threads in two different forum topic areas about the same subject. Please stick to one thread in one forum topic area. Doing so will help to avoid confusion here.

Thanks!