Diabetes Risk Rises with Exposure to Chemical Pollutants

The prevalence of diabetes in the world has significantly increased in the last decades. It is estimated that by 2030, 4.4% of the world population have this metabolic disorder. A study conducted at the University of Granada (Spain) reveals that there is a direct relationship between exposure to pesticides “Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in food, air and water and prevalence of type 2 diabetes in adults, regardless of age, gender and body mass index. These substances tend to concentrate in body fat, and they might be one of the reasons why obese people are more likely to develop diabetes, since the more fat the higher the POP concentrations in the body.  The team people observed that people with higher concentrations of DDE –the main metabolite in the pesticide DDT– are four times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than other people. In addition, the risk of type 2 diabetes is also associated with exposure to beta-hexachlorocyclohexane, a common pesticide ingredient. Lead author Juan Pedro Arrebola posits that “POPs might cause an immunological response when they penetrate estrogen receptors in tissues associated with the metabolism of sugars.”