Biofuels as Environmental Health Threats

Unfavorable climate changes, concerns about the energy future, and the need to protect natural resources spur the search for alternative solutions, such as increasing the use of biofuels. The most popular biofuel is biodiesel used to power diesel engines. Diesel exhaust gases, which are harmful to the environment and human health due to the content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their nitro derivatives, are a mixture of dangerous compounds with mutagenic and carcinogenic properties. Exhaust gases from diesel engines also pose a health risk as they release ultrafine particle fractions. Therefore, biological monitoring methods, including in particular biological tests, may constitute a potential tool for assessing the negative effects of substances emitted from car exhaust fumes on human health. Unfortunately, both in Poland and worldwide, there is a lack of reliable data on the incidence of diseases caused by environmental pollution generated during the combustion of biofuels. Therefore, they remain a current public health problem.