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A new study in the British medical journal, The Lancet, provides more evidence that pesticide exposure may play a role in development of diabetes. The study’s authors urged researchers to focus on the role of environmental pollutants, challenging the long-held assumption that diabetes is primarily linked to “genetics and the Westernization of dietary habits and lifestyle.” An analysis of the US National Health and Examination Survey from 1999-2002 found a “strong correlation between insulin resistance and serum concentrations of persistent organic pollutants, especially for organochlorine compounds,” such as the pesticide DDT and it’s breakdown chemicals. A 2007 article in Human and Experimental Toxicology reported similar findings. In addition, a Swedish study of 380 men and women exposed to organochlorine compounds showed “a strong association with the occurrence of diabetes,” as did comparable research in Belgium. Studies of US Air Force Vietnam War vets also “suggest an adverse relation between dioxin exposure (via the defoliant Agent Orange) and symptoms of diabetes.”

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health has studied more than 31,000 licensed pesticide applicators. Licensed pesticide applicators use more potent formulations of the chemicals than are found in products sold for use in the home or garden. Among the 50 different pesticides the researchers looked at, half were chlorinated, and 7 of these were tied to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. They are: aldrin, chlordane, heptachlor, dichlorvos, trichlorfon, alachlor, and cyanazine. The three organochlorine pesticides, aldrin, chlordane, and heptachlor, are no longer sold in the United States.

“All of the seven are chlorinated compounds,” study investigator Dr Freya Kamel of the National Institute of Environmental Health. “We don’t know yet what the implication of that is, but it can’t be a coincidence. I think it’s an important clue for future research.”