Houses near the street, children are more prone to diabetes

Exposure to smoke and dust from vehicles can increase the risk of infant insulin resistance, a factor that causes adult diabetes.

Elisabeth Thiering and Joachim Heinrich, two scientists from the German Center for Environmental Health, monitored 397 10-year-olds to understand the impact of dirty air from traffic on the risk of diabetes. They took blood samples from children and measured their glucose and insulin levels, the BBC reported.

Two experts measured the degree of dirty air exposure near the road by using air pollution data in 2008 and 2009 where the children were born.

The closer you get to the road, the higher your risk of diabetes. (Photo: Flickriver)

The results showed that the closer the house is to the road, the greater the risk of insulin resistance for children. Specifically, if the distance between the house and the road decreases by 500m, the risk of insulin resistance increases by 7%. In addition, the larger the child's body mass, the higher the resistance to insulin.

'We have taken into account other factors such as the child's body weight when they were born, trying to measure body weight and exposure to cigarette smoke at home. Data show that the level of insulin resistance of children exposed to dirty air from vehicles is greater than that of other children, 'the team confirmed.

Scientists already know that air pollutants, which are oxidizing agents, can adversely affect blood lipids and proteins.

Some previous studies have shown that dirty air causes some chronic diseases, such as heart disease and hardening of the arteries. However, to date studies of the relationship between dirty air and type 2 diabetes in adults still have conflicting results. Besides, very few people understand the impact of dirty air on insulin resistance in children. So some experts call the scientific community cautious with the findings of Thiering and Heinrich.