NOT just lifestyle and heredity, pesticides, too, can give you diabetes. A study by researchers from the University of Granada in Spain has found a direct link between exposure to pesticides or Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and prevalence of Type-2 diabetes in adults. It shows that people with higher concentrations of DDE, the main break-up product of banned pesticide DDT, are four times more likely to suffer from diabetes compared to others. POPs include organochlorine pesticides, widely used in agriculture, and polychlorinated biphenyls, used worldwide in industrial and commercial applications.

The mechanism of action by which POPs increase the risk of diabetes is still unknown. However, some researchers have suggested that they might cause an immunological response when they penetrate estrogen hormone receptors in tissues associated with the metabolism of sugars, says one of the researchers, Juan Pedro Arrebola, of the department of radiology and physical medicine.

WHO data shows around 347 million people have diabetes and the disease kills an estimated 3.4 million people annually. According to the study, published in Environmental Research on December 3, pesticides accumulate in body fat and their concentration is directly proportional to the body fat. Hence obese people may have higher risk of developing diabetes.

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