SOLVED: Ethylene glycol, the main ingredient in antifreeze, is an odorless, colorless, sweet-tasting, water-soluble chemical that, when ingested, is a toxic poison. The treatment for ethylene glycol poisoning involves emergency procedures that include intravenous doses of ethanol for several hours. To understand how this treatment works, you need to know that ethylene glycol is metabolized by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) into four products, and these products are actually toxic agents.