Will the biodiesel revolution kill people with peanut/soybean allergies?
I don’t think the peanut issue would be a problem since peanut oil is rarely used (possibly because it is more expensive?). The majority of biodiesel is from soy beans though, so this may be a problem for those allergic to soy. There’s some info here but I couldn’t find anything on allergies.
A related problem: It’s my understanding that peanut and soybean allergies have become more common because of the ubiquity of those products. That is, the rates of the allergies themselves have increased, not just the allergic reactions that people with the allergies have. I would wonder if biodiesel fuels might cause allergice problems regardless of what kind of oil was used — exposure to whatever kind was used would become so common that the rates of allergies to that kind would increase.
I sincerely hope the increasing popularity of this alternative fuel doesn’t have a negative impact on anyone’s health, but I think once again, there is no free lunch. It’s not really worth worrying about. Peanut allergies are the newest form of mass hysteria. As many people die of rubella each year as peanut allergies– the 50-100 deaths you see cited aren’t backed by US government stats. By the time biodiesel is ready for wide use, the public will have moved into something else to worry about. Of course, the laws of irony probably dictate that my child will have a severe peanut allergy now. If that’s the case, I’ll keep him in a bubble until he outgrows it rather than insist that it’s everyone else’s problem.
The buses here at UC Santa Cruz use biodiesel, so a wide variety of young people get exposed every day. I haven’t heard of any problems. Also I believe that the oil is chemically altered to prepare it for use in vehicles (esterification). Plus, I would suspect that the allergen in peanuts was a protein or sugar, not the oil.
