Environmental Pollution and Diabetes Mellitus

Long-term exposure to environmental pollution has been associated with an increased incidence of diabetes. In addition, environmental pollution has been associated with higher relative risk of mortality among people with diabetes compared to the general population. An association between exposure to air pollution and markers of cardiovascular risk has been shown including decreased heart rate variability, and increased levels of thrombotic and inflammatory factors. Since there is a growing body of evidence regarding the role of environmental pollution and smoking to the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus, we tried to review the literature and patents to provide current literature data on the relationship between environmental pollution and diabetes mellitus.