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(CNN) – According to a study published Friday in the journal Lancet Planetary Health, air pollution levels significantly lower than those deemed safe by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization. health increase the risk of diabetes.
In 2016 alone, the study found that air pollution contributed to 3.2 million new cases of diabetes – 14% of the total – in the world. In the United States, air pollution was linked to 150,000 new cases of diabetes a year.
"There is an undeniable relationship between diabetes and air pollution levels by particles well below current safety standards," said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California. the University of Washington. "Many industry lobbies argue that current levels are too stringent and should be relaxed, which proves that current levels are not yet safe enough and need to be tightened."
chunks of dust, dirt, smoke and soot mixed with liquid droplets. The finest particles regulated by the EPA are 2.5 micrometers; to put this into perspective, a lock of hair is 70 microns or more than 30 times bigger.
Anything less than 10 micrometers can not only enter the lungs, but also into the bloodstream, where it is transported to various organs and triggers a chronic inflammatory reaction that could lead to disease
]we thought that air pollution caused pneumonia, asthma and bronchitis and not much more than that, "said Dr. Philip Landrigan, Dean of Global Health at the University of California. Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, New York. "We now know that air pollution is a very important cause of heart disease and stroke and that it contributes to chronic lung disease, lung cancer and chronic kidney disease." "
Narcotic: According to the WHO, 422 million adults were diagnosed in 2014, compared with 108 million in 1980. Low- and middle-income countries least able to manage the disease were experiencing the strongest growth.
While obesity, lack of exercise and genetic risk are the main drivers of diabetes, studies have shown a link between illness and pollution. It is thought that air pollution triggers inflammation and reduces the ability of the pancreas to manage insulin production.
In this study, researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis collected data on 1.7 million American veterans with no history of diabetes who had been followed for a median of 8 ½ years. After controlling all medically known causes of diabetes and conducting a series of statistical models, they compared veterans' diabetes levels to levels of pollution documented by the EPA and NASA.
In veterans exposed to air pollution between 5 and 10 micrograms cubic meter of air, much less than the safety level of EPA of 12 micrograms, about 21% of diabetes developed. Being exposed to higher levels, between 11.9 and 13.6 micrograms, created a greater risk: about 24% developed diabetes.
The researchers point out that even though the 3% increase seems low, this translates into 5,000 to 6,000 new cases of diabetes per 100,000 people each year.
These data, as well as information from thousands of studies around the world, have been used to create a model for assessing the risk of diabetes across different levels of pollution. Finally, these data were combined with data from the Global Burden of Disease study, which estimates annual cases of diabetes and years of healthy life lost due to pollution, to estimate risk in the world. whole.
Poorer countries with few resources to create and maintain clean air policies, such as India, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and India. Guyana, face a higher risk of pollution by diabetes. The richest countries such as France, Finland and Iceland face a low risk. The United States faced a moderate risk.
"This is a very well done report, very credible, that fits well with this new knowledge of the impacts of air pollution on a series of chronic diseases," said Landrigan. "I think you can link very directly the relaxation of air pollution control standards to disease and death."
Landrigan is a member of the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. responsible for 9 million premature deaths worldwide in 2015. This is 15 times more deaths than all wars and violence combined and three times more than malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS combined.
The commission stated that 92% of pollution-related deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries among minorities and the poor. Children, he said, are particularly vulnerable, even when exposed to low doses.
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