Pesticides, Pollutants, Linked to Diabetes & Insulin Resistance

Pathophysiology researchers at the Universities of Kyungpook (in Korea) and at U of Minnesota have just published "Association Between Serum Concentrations of Persistent Organic Pollutants and Insulin Resistance Among Nondiabetic Adults". The study shows links between blood serum levels of certain pollutants (like organophosphorous pesticides and PCB's) and onset of type 2 diabetes. Previously, the researchers had shown a link between this and diabetes itself.

Persistent Organic Pollutants are also known as POPs, for short. POPs are pollutants tend to bind to fat. Because of this they tend to accumulate in fatty tissue in animals especially. Then if another animal eats them, they concentrate up the food chain. This is kniown as bioaccumulation, and bioconcentration.

As Edie's Sam Bond points out it's,possible that being obese simply means more of the chemicals are likely to accumulate in the system. More fatty tissue means more sites for the pollutants to bind to. As he says, this is what is seen in the wild with top-chain predators like polar bears, for example, that have a lot of fatty tissue.

It's not just pesticides and PCB's that do this. Some metals do as well, for example methylmercury, which is lipid (fat) soluble.

The United Nations Environmental Program or UNEP, has more information on POPs here. There is an international agreement on POPs, known as the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

Canada was the first country to ratify the Stockholm Convention. More information on Canada's strategy for dealing with these chemicals is here.