Pollution Tied to Diabetes and Hypertension Risk

In the study, Dr. Patricia Coogan at Boston University and colleagues found that black women living in neighborhoods with high levels of nitrogen oxides, pollutants found in traffic exhaust, were 25% more likely to develop diabetes and 14% more likely to develop hypertension than those living in sections with cleaner air.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, forty-four percent of all black women in the U.S. have high blood pressure and about 11% have diabetes, compared with 28% and roughly 7%, respectively, of white women. Black Americans are also exposed to higher levels of air pollution than white Americans, according to the study authors.

For their investigation, the researchers followed participants in the ongoing Black Women's Health Study for 10 years. None of the participants had diabetes or high blood pressure when the study began in 1995. Over the course of a decade, 531 women developed high blood pressure and 183 women were diagnosed with diabetes.

The findings on their relative risks for those conditions take into account several other potential influences, including how heavy the women were, whether they smoked and other stressors, including noise levels at participants' homes.

The researchers measured average pollution levels near participants' homes for only one year and the patterns remained relatively constant over the entire study period. While Dr. Coogan and her colleagues estimated nitrogen oxide concentrations near participants' homes, they did not account for commuting habits or exposure to air pollution at work. According to the researchers, Americans, on average, spend about 70% of their time at home.

In addition to measuring nitrogen oxides, a proxy for traffic pollution, the researchers evaluated levels of fine particulate matter. Women who lived in areas with higher fine particulate exposures also faced an increased risk of diabetes and high blood pressure, although statistically the link was weak and could have been due to chance.

Previous reports have suggested that air pollution particles small enough to make their way into the bloodstream may contribute to a narrowing of blood vessels, which can lead to high blood pressure and reduce sensitivity to insulin.

More research needs to be done before these results can be generalized to all women or even all black women living in the U.S., Dr. Coogan cautions. Earlier studies did not find a link between air pollution and increased incidence of diabetes or high blood pressure in men, she said.

Because people don't always have control over where they live, policy makers must recognize the dangers of living and working in areas with high air pollution, Dr. Chen said.