Pollutants Linked to Type-2 Diabetes

People with higher levels of pesticides and other pollutants in their blood may be more likely to get type 2 diabetes. Duk-Hee Lee, of Kyungpook National University (South Korea), and colleagues recruited a group of 725 diabetes-free elderly adults in Sweden and took blood samples to measure their levels of the pollutants. Then, the researchers followed them for the next five years. Thirty-six of the study participants were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes over that time. When the team accounted for confounding factors, people who had high levels of poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in their blood were up to nine times more likely to get diabetes, as compared to those with very low blood levels of pollutants.  PCBs -- once used in paint, plastics, and for electrical equipment manufacturing -- are heavily regulated and no longer used in many countries, however the exposure to these chemicals in the general population still occurs because they have widely contaminated our food chain.  The researchers warn that: “This study found that environmental exposure to some [persistent organic pollutants] substantially increased risk of future type 2 diabetes in an elderly population.”