Pollution Killing You, May Also Be Making You Fat

By Anna Myers

A study conducted by researchers at Duke University has suggested that in addition to being responsible for one in five deaths and 250,000 premature deaths in China, heavy pollution could also increase peoples’ risk of obesity.

The study used pregnant rats to try to establish the effect of pollution on weight. The first group of rats was exposed to Beijing’s air, and the control group treated to filtered air. Both were given the same diet.

The results were about as disconcerting as possible. The two groups of rats were the same weight at the start of the study. However, after 14 days, the rats breathing polluted air were 7 percent heavier, and by 19 days they were already 15 percent fatter than their filtered-air counterparts.

The pollution caused just as much damage to their insides. The rats living in polluted air suffered from inflammation of the lungs and liver, which were (respectively) 25 percent and 16 percent heavier than those of the control group. They were also found to have LDL cholesterol that was 15 percent higher – a problem that increases the level of fat in the bloodstream, causing it to accumulate in the body.

But can we be sure that humans will be affected in the same way? As Marie Ng, an author for the Lancet medical journal, told the Los Angeles Times: “Generalizing from rats to humans, we have to be careful.” Even Jim Zhang, one of the study’s lead authors, maintains that “we cannot 100% translate this to humans.”

However China’s obesity rate continues to rise. From negligible levels 30 years ago, 28 percent of Chinese men and 27 percent of women are now classified as obese or overweight, amounting to nearly 350 million people. Whether or not pollution is to blame, obesity is also a problem that needs to be tackled in China.

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