Persistent organic pollutants and risk of diabetes and obesity on healthy adults: Results from a cross-sectional study in Spain

Abstract

Environmental exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs) has been\r\nreported to be relevant in the population of the Canary Islands (Spain),\r\nespecially that of organochlorine pesticides. On the other hand, the\r\npopulation of this archipelago presents a high prevalence of type 2\r\ndiabetes (T2D), and it has been recently reported that environmental\r\nchemical contamination could play a role in the development of this\r\ndisease. We performed a cross-sectional study in a representative sample\r\nfrom this archipelago to evaluate whether serum levels of selected POPs\r\ncould be considered as risk factors for diabetes in this population.\r\nSerumlevels of 30 POPs were determined in 429 adults (9.3\\% with T2D).\r\nWe found that serum levels of p,p'-DDE (DDE), PCB-153 and PCB-118were\r\nsignificantly higher among subjects having diabetes than in non-diabetic\r\nsubjects (p = 0.001, p = 0.046, and p < 0.0001, respectively). We\r\nobserved a positive correlation between serum p, p'-DDE and glucose\r\nlevels. Serum p, p'-DDE was identified as a risk factor for diabetes in\r\nunivariate analysis in the whole series, and it remained as an\r\nindependent risk factor for diabetes in subjects with serum glucose <126\r\nmg/dl (multivariate analysis, exp(b) = 1.283, CI 95\\% (1.023-1.611), p =\r\n0.031). Those normoglycemic subjects that are most exposed to p, p'-DDE\r\n(95th percentile: serum p, p'-DDE > 5 mu g/L) seem to be those people at\r\nhigher risk. Our results showed that p, p'-DDE levels were significantly\r\nhigher among subjects having diabetes. These findings should\r\nbeconsidered by public health Authorities to implement measures devoted\r\nto minimize human exposure to pollutants that could be harmful to the\r\npopulation.