Exposure to air pollution may up your risk of obesity. Scientists have found that lab rats who breathed Beijing's highly polluted air gained weight and experienced cardio-respiratory and metabolic dysfunctions.
In this latest study, researchers decided to take a closer look at the effects of air pollution on animals. They placed pregnant rats and their offspring in two chambers; one was exposed to outdoor Beijing air and the other contained an air filter that removed most of the air pollution particles.
After only 19 days, the lungs and livers of pregnant rats exposed to the polluted air were heavier and showed increased tissue inflammation. The rats had 50 percent higher LDL cholesterol, 46 percent higher triglycerides, and 97 percent higher total cholesterol. Their insulin resistant level, which is a precursor of Type 2 diabetes, was higher than rats exposed to cleaner air.
An early (pre-print) version of the abstract is available for free; the full article is paywalled.
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Strong smog is big business:
Sales at the engineering firm Dyson rose by more than a quarter in 2015, helped by a tripling of sales in China. Total revenue rose 26% to £1.7bn, including a 222% increase in China.
Dyson opened in China three years ago, selling vacuum cleaners and humidifiers but expanded its range to include purifiers in the last 12 months. In December, Beijing was forced to issue two "red" warnings over hazardous smog levels, which boosted demand for Dyson's products the firm said. Dyson said total sales of its environmental control products grew by 35% over the year, underpinned by strong growth in Asia, and it expects demand for purifiers to increase in 2016.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2016, @10:04AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2016, @11:42AM
Beware, antipodal fat like this could make them crash into the planet's core. It has happened before.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday February 23 2016, @10:24AM
Would the next step be to gather a load of information comparing historical levels of air pollution is various towns and cities over the last half-century or so, and compare them to obesity / cholesterol levels and respiratory health. If this link applies to humans as well as to rats, then some interesting trends should emerge. Controlling for regional trends in diet / exercise / other factors might be tricky, but weight and health are well studied so there should be plenty of decent data out there.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Tuesday February 23 2016, @10:59AM
The other factors could indeed be tricky. For example, in a city with few cars and bad to no mass transit, people will walk or go by bike a lot, which is good for health and especially against obesity, but they will also produce less pollution, as cars are one of the major sources of pollution. This will cause a correlation between obesity and pollution that is in no way related to the causal link found with rats.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday February 23 2016, @12:09PM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2016, @02:47PM
I can tell you that if the only way to get anywhere is to walk few miles no one will fuckin go anywhere.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Tuesday February 23 2016, @03:10PM
From that comment alone, I already can tell that you must be an American.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday February 23 2016, @08:39PM
It's a gross overstatement, but traditionally mobility has been linked to ease of travel, so it's not an inordinate overreach.
It's also true that there are many people with mobility problems, and for them travel is even more tightly linked to ease of travel. So you could just as reasonably said "I can tell you're an old fogey.". In neither case is it universally true, but in both cases people tend to project their own feelings onto the rest of the world. (Except that a lot of old people tend to go "When I was your age ...".)
All that said, back when we could still move easily my wife used to put, to my mind, unreasonable effort into parking as close to the trail head as possible. The steps through the parking lot seemed to her well worth avoiding even though we were headed out for a hike.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday February 23 2016, @08:13PM
I walk about 3 miles to work every day, and when the weather improves, will walk 3 miles back at night too.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Snow on Tuesday February 23 2016, @05:44PM
cars are one of the major sources of pollution
I know you said 'one of', but this article really surprised me when I came across it:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857/How-16-ships-create-pollution-cars-world.html [dailymail.co.uk] (How 16 ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world)
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2016, @11:12AM
Are strict environmental standards the only things keeping the USA from collapsing into a sugar-dusted singularity?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2016, @02:07PM
Raise your hands if you've been randomizing or checking the air quality throughout your animal housing units.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 24 2016, @03:14AM
Animal facilities in the US are typically temperature and humidity controlled. Poor air quality would be noticed by the people that work in the facilities and OSHA would take care of it. Also, studies would have control animals that are age/sex matched and under the same conditions except for the experimental variable.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 23 2016, @06:37PM
But hey, those emissions standards that VW cheated at are totally nonsense, right??
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday February 23 2016, @08:43PM
Rephrase:
But hey, those emissions standards that VW cheated at are totally nonsense, right??
I'm not disagreeing with your basic message, but VW was just the first of several automakers believed to have done essentially the same thing. (I'm not sure how many have actually been proven guilty.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2016, @08:17PM
Chunks. LOL.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2016, @08:44PM
Beijing Air Gain Weight? Is it the mass of the pollution?
Is the air getting colder and denses?
Same mass, stronger gravity?
(Score: 2) by Absolutely.Geek on Wednesday February 24 2016, @03:01AM
Just reading the headline!
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
(Score: 2) by Absolutely.Geek on Wednesday February 24 2016, @03:05AM
Totally Legit!!! [sci-hub.io]
Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.