Could the diabetes epidemic be down to pollution?

[WhiteTara]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19926731.900-could-the-diabetes-epidemic-be-down-to-pollution.html

ON 10 July 1976, a reactor at a chemical plant near the small town of Seveso in northern Italy exploded, sending a toxic cloud drifting into the summer sky. Around 18 square kilometres of land was contaminated with TCDD, a member of the notorious class of industrial chemicals known as dioxins.

The immediate after-effects were relatively mild: 15 children landed in hospital with skin inflammation and around 3300 small animals were killed. Today, however, the accident casts a long shadow over the people of Seveso, who are suffering increased numbers of premature deaths from cancer, cardiovascular disease and, perhaps surprisingly, diabetes (American Journal of Epidemiology, vol 167, p 847).

To some diabetes researchers, Seveso serves as a warning to us all. Ask why diabetes is epidemic in the 21st century and most people will point the finger at bad diet, laziness and obesity. According to a small but growing group of scientists, though, the real culprit is a family of toxic chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants, or POPs. If these researchers are right, POPs - which include some of the most reviled chemicals ever created, including dioxins, DDT and PCBs - may be key players in the web of events that lead people to develop the disease.
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For most people, POPs are inescapable: meat, fish and dairy products all contain them. They enter the food chain from sources such as pesticides, chemical manufacturing and incinerated waste, and accumulate in animals higher up in the chain. Once in the body they take up residence in fat.

POPs have long been recognised as nasty substances: their effects include birth defects, cancer, immune dysfunction and endocrine disruption. Since the 1970s, various measures have been put in place to phase them out - 12 of the worst POPs, known as the "dirty dozen", (see table) were banned in 2004 - but despite these efforts, POPs remain a significant presence in the environment and food chain, partly because many are still in use in the developing world, and partly because these chemicals can take decades to break down.

there is much more. and now we have nanotechnology. yeah. better living through chemistry. :grr:

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Sugar and lack of exercise pollution, aided and abetted by advertizing

for sugar saturated products and games that keep you seated in front of your TV or PC.

[Donnachaidh]

2. high fructose corn syrup in pre-packaged foods is killing people. n/t

[AllieB]

3. Sugar and refined carbs are why people have diabetes.

It has nothing to with exercise, as a poster said above.