Another Link Between Pollution and Diabetes

Following on recent research that tied several pesticides, including those used on golf courses and those used to kill some food crop pests, to diabetes, new research out of Ohio State University ties air pollution to diabetes.

Breathing soot, the researchers found, affects the way insulin works in lab mice, making fat mice more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes. The study was paid for by the National Instituted of Health, published in Circulation and detailed in the popular press by the Columbus Dispatch. In other words, the mice were already prone to disease from being overweight on a lousy diet -- but the air pollution seemed to be a trigger determining which fat rats would develop diabetes and which would not.

Soot -- also known as fine particulates -- is more highly regulated today than even a few years ago, as diesel engines and smokestacks have been improved by government regulations. But the air is still considered unhealthy in many regions of the countries on certain days, because of the level of fine particulates in the air.

It's already well known that the dirty air can trigger lung disease and heart disease -- that's why the government cracked down on pollution. It's possible that pollution was also a factor in the nation's obesity epidemic.

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