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January 7, 2007

Does Pollution Increase the Risk of Developing Diabetes?

There appears to be a correlation:

A preliminary study has found Americans who live near toxic waste sites are hospitalized more for diabetes than those who live in clean communities.

The observational study, which tracked hospitalization rates for patients in New York between 1993 and 2000, found an increase in diabetes-related hospital admissions for people who live in ZIP codes containing toxic waste sites.

Although just an initial effort, the study does narrow the search for an answer to the U.S. diabetes boom, said study author Lawrence Lessner, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University at Albany in New York.

The study appeared in the January issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.

The researchers compared hospitalization rates by ZIP code for three types of communities: clean, without hazardous sites; contaminated by persistent organic pollutants, or POPs; and containing other types of waste or pollutants.

The authors examined whites and blacks between the ages of 25 to 74, correcting for potential factors that could skew the data, such as age, race, sex and average household income.

A major type of POPs are polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a former industrial ingredient of pesticides, paints, paper and other products. Although banned from U.S. industry in the 1970s, PCBs still exist in the environment. People are mainly exposed through eating animal fats, although they can also breathe in the pollutants.

Possible mechanisms for the association with diabetes are unknown, although some speculate that PCBs may influence the retention of fat in the body; more body fat is a risk factor for diabetes.

Posted by Diabetologica at January 7, 2007 11:40 PM