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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 pollutant particles far below current safety standards," says Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington. "Many industry lobbyists say the current levels are too stringent and should be relaxed: the evidence shows that current levels are not yet safe enough and need to be strengthened."
dirt , smoke and soot mixed with droplets of liquid. The finest particles regulated by the EPA are 2.5 micrometers; to put this in perspective, a human hair hair is 70 micrometers, or more than 30 times larger.
No matter what less than 10 micrometers can not only enter the lungs, but also into the bloodstream. organs and triggers a chronic inflammatory reaction that can lead to the disease. "Ten or fifteen years ago, we thought that air pollution caused pneumonia, asthma and bronchitis and not much more," said Dr. Philip Landrigan, Dean of Global Health. from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. who was not involved in the study. "We now know that air pollution is a very important cause of heart disease and stroke and contributes to chronic lung disease, lung cancer and chronic kidney disease."
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 the levels of pollution documented by the EPA and NASA
among veterans exposed to air pollution between 5 and 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air, much less than the security level of EPA of 12 micrograms, about 21% of developed diabetes. Exposure to higher levels, between 11.9 and 13.6 micrograms, created a higher risk: about 24% developed diabetes. The researchers point out that if the 3% increase seems low, it translates to 5,000 to 6,000 new cases of diabetes per 100,000 people each year.
Air policies, such as India, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea and Guyana, faced 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 very well done report is very credible and 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 loosening air pollution control standards with illness and death."
. – and middle-income countries among minorities and the poor. Children, he said, are particularly vulnerable, even when exposed to low doses.
