That's glycol, not glycerol. Ethylene glycol is especially toxic, while propylene glycol may be used as a food additive (E1520, or E490 for pharmaceuticals).
Note that the two are chemically related: glycerol is propylene glycol with its end-chain carbon atom and bonded hydrogen atoms yeeted off and replaced with an oxygen + hydrogen pair.
(The process of actually manufacturing glycerol is more complicated than that, of course.)
Wrong. Glycerol was used as antifreeze historically.