Link found between pollutants, certain complications of obesity

[Northerner]

A link has been found between a type of pollutant and certain metabolic complications of obesity. The breakthrough could eventually help improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiometabolic risk associated with obesity, such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are human-made chemicals used in agricultural, industrial and manufacturing processes. Due to their toxicity, POPs have been strictly and internationally regulated to ensure public health. However, because they have the ability to resist environmental degradation, POPs can still be found all around the world, even in areas where they have never been used, and remain omnipresent in our environment and food products. Thus, virtually all humans are exposed to POPs daily. In this new research, POPs have been found to accelerate the development of prediabetes and obesity in mice, thereby mimicking the unfavourable cardiometabolic profile characteristic of certain obese individuals.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140227125520.htm