A new study out of Duke University studying the effect of air pollution has found that prolonged exposure to air pollution increases the risk for obesity and diabetes.
According to TIME, the study involved observing two groups of pregnant lab rats to varying amounts of air pollution. One group of rats was exposed to filtered air that had most of the pollutant particles removed. The other group was exposed to Beijing air.
After just 19 days, the liver and lungs of the pregnant rats exposed to Beijing air showed signs of increased tissue inflammation. In addition, they were also heavier. Their cholesterol rates were also far higher — the rats exposed to the polluted air had up to 97 percent total cholesterol, a factor which greatly affects the risk of developing obesity and diabetes.
Long-term exposure is necessary to develop the inflammation and metabolic dysfunction. The infant rats, kept in the same chamber as their mother though exposed to the pollution for a shorter time were less effected.
Male rats breathing the air were an average of 18 percent heavier than their counter parts in the other group who breathed clean air. The female rats in the same situation were an average of 10 percent heavier.
“If translated and verified in humans, these findings will support the urgent need to reduce air pollution, given the growing burden of obesity in today’s highly polluted world,” said the study’s senior author Junfeng Zhang, a professor of global and environmental health at Duke University and Duke Kunshan University.