Anthropogenic factors play a central role in the development of allergies. To understand the effects of these substances on humans and create new approaches to prevention, scientists from Research Area A in cooperation with HICE (Helmholtz Virtual Institute of Complex Environmental Mixtures) analyse various substances in a “mobile lab” in the specific location where they originate.
Owing to increasing air pollution by marine traffic, especially in harbours, emissions from ships’ diesel engines running on a variety of fuels were the first to be analysed. It was found that the heavy oil emissions from marine diesel engines have a lot of organic impurities, but that even combustion of diesel EN590 releases plenty of bioactive compounds. The effects on immune processes are still being analysed at present. Dr. Sebastian Öder, CK-CARE, is involved in this project. Prof. Jeroen Buters (CK-CARE/ZAUM) took a leading role in the construction of the mobile lab.
The world’s first safety level 2 mobile laboratory was planned and constructed because a lot of combustion sources are either too big (e.g. marine engines) or are too far from biological laboratories. Safety level S2 is absolutely essential because the experiments are performed with human immortalised cells of safety level S2.