Monday July 21, 2014 (foodconsumer.orgA) -- Most food consumers might have known that high intake of trans fat, saturated fat and added sugar in beverages and processed foods can increase risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus.  A new study suggests that long term exposure to air pollution can increase the risk too.

Air pollution has been known to increase risk of a variety of diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.  The current study shows that people were exposed to PM10 particles were more likely to develop diabetes mellitus than those who were not.  PM10 refers to particulate matter smaller than 10μm in diameter.

Specifically, each adiitonal10μg/m(3) increase in PM10 in outdoor air was associated with 40 percent increased risk of diabetes mellitus.

The study was based on data from 6,392 men and women aged 29 to 73 years who were enrolled in the Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung and Heart Diseases in Adults.

The study also finds that long term exposure to nitrogen dioxide NO2 was associated with increased risk of diabetes mellitus.  Specifically, each additional 10μg/m(3) increase was correlated with 17% increased risk of the health condition.

According to the study report, beta blockers mitigated the detrimental effect of PM10.

The study concludes "Our study adds to the evidence that long term air pollution exposure is associated with diabetes mellitus. PM10 appears to be a useful marker of aspects of air pollution relevant for diabetes." (David Liu)

Eze IC, Schaffner E, Fischer E, Schikowski T, Adam M, Imboden M, Tsai M, Carballo D, von Eckardstein A, Künzli N, Schindler C, Probst-Hensch N.  Long-term air pollution exposure and diabetes in a population-based Swiss cohort.  Environ Int. 2014 Sep; Epub 2014 Jun 7.