大豆柴油的毒性比其他燃料少

Unlike conventional diesel, fuel made from soybeans does not directly damage lung cells, a lab study has shown.

“Some of the soybean biodiesel presently being used in Brazil does not exhibit direct adverse effects on human lung cells nor [does it] induce inflammatory response,” says thepaper, published in the August issue of the journal Toxicology in Vitro.

To assess the fuels’ toxic effects, researchers from Brazil and Puerto Rico exposed lung cell cultures to particles emitted by the combustion of four types of fuel: commercial diesel from fossil fuel sources, pure soy-based biodiesel, soy-based biodiesel with additives and ethanol with additives.

After exposure, the scientists counted the proportion of cells that survived to assess the fuels’ toxicity, and measured the quantity of cytokines the cells produced. Cytokines are proteins secreted by certain cells, including lung cells, involved in the regulation of inflammatory processes. An increase in their production can cause damage to the cells.

巴西里约热内卢天主教大学的化学家阿德里亚娜·吉达（Adriana Gioda）表示，这项研究是首次证明，基于大豆基于大豆的生物柴油不会引起肺部细胞的显着毒性反应。

她说：“这是个好消息，为未来打开了良好的观点。”“结果应为该国投资更多地研究生物柴油的健康影响的基础，并希望以更好的方式利用这种能源。”

但是，作者警告说，这些结果不应“被视为绝对积极的结果”，并应为对活动物的进一步研究铺平道路。

Eventually, the research could help prevent respiratory and cardiovascular disease, says Solange Cristina García, a toxicologist at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, also in Brazil.

她说：“毫无疑问，投资于生物燃料的研究是减少大气中有毒污染物排放并预防疾病的中期或长期解决方案。”

Brazil is a leading producer of biofuels, in particular bioethanol which is routinely used to power cars in the country. Although biofuels are renewable and biodegradable energy sources, their use also raises environmental concerns because growing soybean to make diesel or growing sugar cane to make ethanol requires large areas of arable land.

本文的一个版本最初出现在Scidev.net的拉丁美洲和加勒比海版中。