Vitamin B could help mitigate the effects of the most dangerous type of air pollution, according to a study published recently.

In the first study of its kind, a team of international researchers looked at the damage caused by one of the pollutants that has the most severe impact on health: PM2.5.

The team found that something as simple as a daily vitamin B supplement could potentially reduce the impact of the tiny particles on the human body, although they stressed that research was in its early stages and the sample size was small.

According to the WHO, 92 percent of the world’s population lives in places where the PM2.5 level exceeds the recommended threshold.

For this study, published in the science journal PNAS, 10 volunteers were initially exposed to clean air and given a placebo to check their baseline responses.

The group then took another placebo for four weeks before being exposed to heavily polluted air from downtown Toronto, where an estimated 1,000 cars pass every hour.

The bad air was delivered to the volunteers through an “oxygen type” face mask.

The experiment was then repeated, with each volunteer taking a B vitamin supplement daily — made up of 2.5 mg of folic acid, 50 mg of vitamin B6, and 1 mg of vitamin B12.

B6 can be found in liver, chicken and nuts, amongst other things, and B12 in fish, meat, eggs, milk and some cereals.

The researchers found that four weeks of B vitamin supplements reduced the damage of PM2.5 exposure by 28-76 percent.

The results highlight how prevention at an individual level could be used to fight the adverse effects of PM2.5, the researchers said.

最近发布的一项新研究表明，B族维生素可减轻危害最大的空气污染物的影响。

一个国际研究团队检测了PM2.5带来的危害。PM2.5是对健康产生极其恶劣影响的污染物之一。这在同类研究中尚属首次。

研究团队发现，每天摄入B族维生素补充剂这样的简单物质可能会减少这些细颗粒物对人体的影响。不过，研究人员强调研究还处于早期阶段，样本量很小。

根据世界卫生组织报告，全世界92%的人口生活在PM2.5超过推荐安全值的地方。

这项研究发表在科学期刊《美国国家科学院院刊》上。实验初期，10名志愿者接触干净的空气，同时服用安慰剂记录基线反应。

持续服用另一种安慰剂四周后，志愿者开始接触受到严重污染的空气，这些空气来自于多伦多市中心，那里每小时约有1000辆汽车通过。

志愿者通过氧气面罩呼吸被污染的空

气。

然后，团队重复实验，让每个志愿者每天服用维生素B族补充剂。补充剂由2.5毫克叶

酸，50毫克维生素B6和1毫克维生素B12组成。

肝脏、鸡肉、坚果等食物中都含有维生素B6，鱼类、肉类、鸡蛋、牛奶和一些谷物中含有维生素B12。

研究人员发现，连续四周服用维生素B族补充剂后，PM2.5带来的危害减少了28%到76%。

研究人员表示，这些结果为个人对抗PM2.5的不良影响指明了预防方法。

(Chinadaily.com.cn)

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

   【缓解】huǎnjiě mitigate make less severe

    【有害的】yǒuhài de adverse causing harm