Study finds air pollution increases insulin resistance and diabetes risk

Exposure to air pollution raises the risk of resistance to insulin, a typical warning sign of diabetes, according to a study of almost 400 German 10-year-olds.

Insulin resistance climbed by 17 per cent for every 10.6 micrograms per cubic metre increase in ambient nitrogen dioxide and by 19 per cent for every 6 micrograms per cubic metre increase in particulate matter.

The findings were published yesterday in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

The study adds to previous research showing a link between traffic-related air pollution and diabetes development in adults.

Those studies have shown that exposure to fine particles that invade the breathing system and get into the heart and blood vessels increases inflammation, which may be linked to insulin resistance, said Joachim Heinrich of the German Research Centre for Environmental Health, one of the study authors.

"Given the ubiquitous nature of air pollution and the high incidence of insulin resistance in the general population, the associations examined here may have potentially important public health effects," Heinrich said in the published paper.