Research Shows More Links Between Pesticides and Diabetes
A study has revealed that having high levels of certain pesticides in the blood may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, especially in overweight people.
The study, led by Riikka Airaksinen of Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare piggybacks off of several other studies that have linked chemical pollutants to diabetes, as well as diseases such as cancer.
Pesticides like organochlorines and others that are considered "persistent organic pollutants" have been banned from the U.S. and other developing countries due to research revealing links to many different potential health risks, on top of cancer.
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Once used in to a slew of commonly used items such as appliances, fluorescent lighting and insecticides, persistent organic pollutants were banned completely in the 1970's. However, their "persistent" nature allows them to remain in the environment for years, and they can especially build up in animal and human body fat.
Dr. David R. Jacobs a professor of epidemiology at the University of Minnesota, unrelated to the study, told Reuters that persistent organic pollutants can be released in many different ways and are constantly being recycled.
"A chemical that is bad for the health of one life form -- say insects and weeds -- is not likely to be good for humans," he said.
The average American diet is heavy in high fat foods such as meats, oily fish and dairy products, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes may be the main source of continued exposure to persistent organic pollutants. And correlating research has discovered that persistent organic pollutants, hiding within body fat can break down the body's mechanism for regulating blood sugar, thus showing the link to type 2 diabetes.
This particular study found that overweight people with high levels of organochlorine pesticides in their blood had the highest risk of type 2 diabetes.
Measuring the persistent organic pollutants levels in the blood of 2,000 older people, Airaksinen's team found, those with the top 10 percent highest levels were twice as likely to have diabetes as those in the 10 percent lowest levels.
About 15 percent of the participants had type 2 diabetes. The study explains that persistent organic pollutants and body fat "may have a synergistic effect on the risk of type 2 diabetes," however it did not determine that pollutants are a direct cause of the disease.
As with weight, the researchers also took into consideration other risk factors for diabetes, such as age, sex, waist-size and blood pressure levels. Airaksinen says that overall, research shows a cause-and-effect relationship between pollutant exposure, high body fat in the overweight and type 2 diabetes.
