Traffic pollution could increase diabetes risk, according to study

Fri, 25 Nov 2011
New research has revealed that high levels of air pollution from traffic could raise the risk of people developing diabetes. It was shown that those who live in places with bad traffic-related air pollution face a somewhat higher likelihood of developing the metabolic condition because of high levels of nitrogen dioxide from traffic exhausts, although it does not confirm if just the air pollution was causing the greater diabetes risk.

The study, involving data from almost 52,000 urban Danish citizens and which was published in the journal Diabetes Care, showed that people living in areas of heavy traffic are at a four per cent higher risk of being diagnosed with diabetes than those who live where there is cleaner air.

Within a 10-year period, nearly 5.5 per cent of those aged between 50 and 65 at the start of the study received their first diabetes diagnosis. As well as being exposed to air pollution for longer, the people that were diagnosed with diabetes tended to be older, heavier men who were either previous or current smokers.

The scientists also claimed that healthier people were more at risk from air pollution, being at a 10 per cent greater risk, while non-smokers also faced a 12 per cent higher risk. These findings follow a previous study that revealed diabetics appeared to be more vulnerable to the effects of exposure to air pollution than non-diabetics.

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