COULD THE DIABETES EPIDEMIC BE DOWN TO POLLUTION?

[Guest guest]

What about Depleted Uranium?

 

http://www.nwo101.com/2007/11/depleted-uranium-contaminates-europe.html

 

Thursday, November 22, 2007 Depleted Uranium Contaminates

Europe<http://www.nwo101.com/2007/11/depleted-uranium-contaminates-europe.html>

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By Lauren Moret: Video:

http://www.consciousmedianetwork.com/members/lmoret.htm

 

" Did the use of Uranium weapons in Gulf War II result in contamination of

Europe? Evidence from the measurements of the Atomic Weapons Establishment

(AWE), Aldermaston, Berkshire, UK, " reported the Sunday Times Online

(February 19, 2006) in a shocking scientific study authored by British

scientists Dr. Chris Busby and Saoirse Morgan.

 

The highest levels of depleted uranium ever measured in the atmosphere in

Britain, were transported on air currents from the Middle East and Central

Asia; of special significance were those from the Tora Bora bombing in

Afghanistan in 2001, and the " Shock & Awe " bombing during Gulf War II in

Iraq in 2003.

 

Out of concern for the public, the official British government air

monitoring facility, known as the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), at

Aldermaston, was established years ago to measure radioactive emissions from

British nuclear power plants and atomic weapons facilities. The British

government facility (AWE) was taken over 3 years ago by Halliburton, which

refused at first to release air monitoring data to Dr. Busby, as required by

law.

 

An international expert on low level radiation, Busby serves as an official

advisor on several British government committees, and co-authored an

independent report on low level radiation with 45 scientists, the European

Committee on Radiation Risk (ECRR), for the European Parliament. He was able

to get Aldermaston air monitoring data from Halliburton /AWE by filing a

Freedom of Information request using a new British law which became

effective January 1, 2005; but the data for 2003 was missing. He obtained

the 2003 data from the Defence Procurement Agency.

 

The fact that the air monitoring data was circulated by Halliburton/ AWE to

the Defence Procurement Agency, implies that it was considered to be

relevant, and that Dr. Busby was stonewalled because Halliburton/ AWE

clearly recognized that it was a serious enough matter to justify a

government interpretation of the results, and official decisions had to be

made about what the data would show and its political implications for the

military.

 

In a similar circumstance, in 1992, Major Doug Rokke, the Director of the

U.S. Army Depleted Uranium Cleanup Project after Gulf War I, was ordered by

a U.S. Army General officer to write a no-bid contract " Depleted Uranium,

Contaminated Equipment, and Facilities Recovery Plan Outline " for the

procedures for cleaning up Kuwait, including depleted uranium, for Kellogg,

Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton.

 

The contract/proposal was passed through Madeleine Albright, the Secretary

of State, to the Emirate of Kuwait, who considered the terms and then hired

KBR for the cleanup. Aldermaston is one of many nuclear facilities

throughout Europe that regularly monitor atmospheric radiation levels,

transported by atmospheric sand and dust storms, or air currents, from

radiation sources in North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

 

After the " Shock and Awe " campaign in Iraq in 2003, very fine particles of

depleted uranium were captured with larger sand and dust particles in

filters in Britain. These particles traveled in 7-9 days from Iraqi

battlefields as far as 2400 miles away. The radiation measured in the

atmosphere quadrupled within a few weeks after the beginning of the 2003

campaign, and at one of the 5 monitoring locations, the levels twice

required an official alert to the British Environment Agency.

 

In addition to depleted uranium data gathered in previous studies on Kosovo

and Bosnia by Dr. Busby, the Aldermaston air monitoring data provided a

continuous record of depleted uranium levels in Britain from the other

recent wars. Extensive video news footage of the 2003 Iraq war, including

Fallujah in 2004, provided irrefutable documented evidence that the US has

unethically and illegally used depleted uranium munitions on cities and

other civilian populations.

 

These military actions are in direct violation of not only the international

conventions, but also violate US military law because the US is a signatory

to The Hague and Geneva Conventions and the 1925 Geneva Gas Protocol.

Depleted uranium weaponry meets the definition of a Weapon of Mass

Destruction (WMD) in two out of three categories under US Code TITLE 50,

CHAPTER 40 Sec. 2302. After action mandates have also been violated such as

US Army Regulation AR 700-48 and TB 9-1300-278 which requires treatment of

radiation poisoning for all casualties, including enemy soldiers and

civilians, and remediation.

 

Dr. Busby's request for this data through Halliburton from AWE, and

subsequently provided by the Defence Procurement Agency, was necessary to

establish verification of Iraq's 2003 depleted uranium levels in the

atmosphere.

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facts demonstrate why Halliburton (AWE) refused to release the 2003 data to

him, and it obviously establishes that weaponized depleted uranium is an

indiscriminate weapon being distributed all over the world in a very short

period of time, immediately after its use. The recent documentary film

BEYOND TREASON details the horrific effects of depleted uranium exposure on

American troops and Iraqi civilians in the Gulf region in 1991; not to speak

of those civilians continuing to live in permanently contaminated and thus

uninhabitable regions. Global increases since 1991 of melanoma, infant

mortality, and frog die-offs can only be explained by an environmental

contaminant. Alarming global increases in diabetes, with high correlation to

depleted uranium wars in Iraq, Bosnia/Kosovo, and Afghanistan, demonstrate

that diabetes is a sensitive indicator and a rapid response to internal

depleted uranium exposure.

 

Americans in 2003 reported visiting Iraqi relatives in Baghdad who were

suffering from an epidemic of diabetes. After returning to the US following

2-3 weeks in Iraq, they discovered within a few months that they too had

diabetes. Japanese human shields and journalists who worked in Iraq during

the 2003 war are sick and now have symptoms typical of depleted uranium

exposure.

 

Likewise, after the US Navy, several years ago, moved depleted uranium

bombing and gunnery ranges from Vieques Island in Puerto Rico to Australia,

health effects there are already being reported.The documentary film BLOWIN'

IN THE WIND, has an interview with a family with two normal teenage

daughters, living near the bombing range where depleted uranium weaponry is

now being used.The parents showed photos of their baby born recently with

severe birth defects. The baby looked like Iraqi deformed babies, and like

many of the Iraqi babies, died 5 days after birth. Other than anonymous

British government officials denying that Iraq was the source of the

depleted uranium measured at Aldermaston by AWE, and some unnamed

'establishment scientists' blaming it on local sources or natural uranium in

the Iraq nvironment, there is no one, as of this writing, willing to lend

their name or office to refuting this damning evidence reported by Dr.

Busby.

 

All of the anonymous statements used by the media thus far are contradicted

by the factual evidence found in the filters, which was all transported from

the same region. The natural abundance of uranium in the crust of the earth

is 2.4 parts per million, which would not become concentrated to the high

levels measured in Britain during a long journey from the Middle East. These

particles traveling over thousands of miles would dilute the concentration

rather than increase it.There are no known natural uranium deposits in Iraq

which make it impossible for these anonymous claims to have scientific

credibility. Unnamed government sources blamed local sources in Britain such

as nuclear power plants; however that would also leave evidence of fission

products in the filters which were not in evidence. The lowest levels

measured at monitoring stations around Aldermaston were at the facility,

which means it could not be a possible source. Atomic weapons facilities

would be more likely to produce plutonium contamination, also not reported

as a co-contaminant at aldermaston.

-

In other words, all factual evidence considered, the question must be asked,

what were the media's anonymous experts and government officials basing

their claims on? Dr. Keith Baverstock exposed a World Health Organization

(WHO) cover-up on depleted uranium in an Aljazeera article, " Washington's

Secret Nuclear War " posted on September 14, 2004. It was the most popular

article ever posted on the Aljazeera English language website. Baverstock

leaked an official WHO report that he wrote, to the media several years ago

after the WHO refused to publish it. He warned in the report about the

mobility of, and environmental contamination from, tiny depleted uranium

particles formed from US munitions. Busby's ECRR report challenged the

International Committee on Radiation Protection (ICRP) standards for

radiation risk, and reported that the mutagenic effects of radiation

determined by Chernobyl studies are actually 1000 times higher than the ICRP

risk model predicts. The ECRR report also establishes that the ICRP risk

model, based on external exposure of Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims, and the

ECRR risk model, based on internal exposure, are mutually exclusive models.

In other words, the ICRP risk model based on external exposure cannot be

used to estimate internal exposure risk.

-

The report also states that a separate study is needed for depleted uranium

exposure risks, because it may be far more toxic than nuclear weapons or

nuclear power plant exposures. In July of 2005, the National Academy of

Sciences reported in their new BEIR VII report on low level radiation, that

there is " no safe level of exposure " .The report also finally admitted that

very low levels are more harmful per unit of radiation than higher levels of

exposure, also known as the " supralinear " effect. This is extremely alarming

information on low level radiation risk, since the AWE data from Aldermaston

confirms that rapid global transport of depleted uranium dust is occurring.

Dr. Katsuma Yagasaki, a Japanese physicist at the University of the Ryukyus

in Okinawa, has estimated that the atomicity equivalent of at least 400,000

Nagasaki bombs has been released into the global atmosphere since 1991, from

the use of depleted uranium munitions. It is completely mixed in the

atmosphere in one year. The " smog of war " from Gulf War I was found in

glaciers and ice sheets globally a year later.

 

Circles of death: Genetic Distruction of The Arab/Muslim race with DU. A

double dose for Iran in the middle.

 

Even more alarming is the non-specific catalytic or enzyme effect from

internal exposures to nanoparticles of depleted uranium. Soldiers on

depleted uranium battlefields have reported that, after noticing a metallic

taste in their mouths, within 24-48 hours of exposure they became sick with

Gulf War syndrome symptoms. Who is profiting from this global uranium

nightmare?

 

Dr. Jay Gould revealed in his book THE ENEMY WITHIN, that the British Royal

family privately owns investments in uranium holdings worth over $6 billion

through Rio Tinto Mines. The mining company was formed for the British Royal

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in the late 1950's by Roland Walter " Tiny " Rowland, the Queen's buccaneer.

Born in 1917 through illegitimate German parentage, and before changing his

name, Roland Walter Fuhrhop was a passionate member of the Nazi youth

movement by 1933, and a classmate described him as " ...an ardent supporter

of Hitler and an arrogant, nasty piece of work to boot. " His meteoric rise

and protection by intel agencies and the British Crown are an indication of

what an asset he has been for decades to the Queen, as Africa's most

powerful Western businessman.

 

Africa and Australia are two of the main sources of uranium in the world.

The Rothschilds control uranium supplies and prices globally, and one serves

as the Queen's business manager. Filmmaker David Bradbury made BLOWIN' IN

THE WIND to expose depleted uranium bombing and gunnery range activities

contaminating pristine areas of eastern Australia, and to expose plans to

extract over $36 billion in uranium from mines in the interior over the next

6 years. Halliburton has finished construction of a 1000 mile railway from

the mining area to a port on the north coast of Australia to transport the

ore.

The Queen's favorite American buccaneers, Cheney, Halliburton, and the Bush

family, are tied to her through uranium mining and the shared use of illegal

depleted uranium munitions in the Middle East, Central Asia and

Kosovo/Bosnia. The major roles that such diverse individuals and groups as

the Carlyle Group, George Herbert Walker Bush, former Carlyle CEO Frank

Calucci, the University of California managed nuclear weapons labs at Los

Alamos and Livermore, and US and international pension fund investments have

played in proliferating depleted uranium weapons is not well known or in

most instances even recognized, inside or outside the country. Not even God

can Save The Queen from the guilt of her complicity in turning Planet Earth

into a " Death Star. "

 

 

 

On Sat, Sep 20, 2008 at 1:18 AM, <bestsurprise2002 wrote:

 

> New Scientist (pg. 36), Sept. 10, 2008

> COULD THE DIABETES EPIDEMIC BE DOWN TO POLLUTION?

> _http://www.precaution.org/lib/08/prn_seveso_diabetes.080910.htm_

> (http://www.precaution.org/lib/08/prn_seveso_diabetes.080910.htm)

> By Phyllida Brown

>

> On July 10, 1976, a reactor at a chemical plant near the small town of

> Seveso in northern Italy exploded, sending a toxic cloud drifting into the

> summer

> sky. Around 18 square kilometres of land was contaminated with TCDD, a

> member

> of the notorious class of industrial chemicals known as dioxins.

>

> The immediate after-effects were relatively mild: 15 children landed in

> hospital with skin inflammation and around 3300 small animals were killed.

> Today,

> however, the accident casts a long shadow over the people of Seveso, who

> are

> suffering increased numbers of premature deaths from cancer, cardiovascular

>

> disease and, perhaps surprisingly, diabetes (American Journal of

> Epidemiology, vol 167, p 847

> _http://www.precaution.org/lib/seveso_mortality_25_yr_followup.080219.pdf_

> (http://www.precaution.org/lib/seveso_mortality_25_yr_followup.080219.pdf)

> ).

>

> To some diabetes researchers, Seveso serves as a warning to us all. Ask why

>

> diabetes is epidemic in the 21st century and most people will point the

> finger at bad diet, laziness and obesity. According to a small but growing

> group

> of scientists, though, the real culprit is a family of toxic chemicals

> known

> as persistent organic pollutants, or POPs. If these researchers are right,

> POPs -- which include some of the most reviled chemicals ever created,

> including

> dioxins, DDT and PCBs -- may be key players in the web of events that lead

> people to develop the disease.

>

> The claim has yet to attract widespread attention from mainstream diabetes

> research. Even its champions were initially surprised by it. " I had never

> even

> heard of POPs until 2005, " says Duk-Hee Lee, an epidemiologist at Kyungpook

>

> National University in Daegu, Korea, who led the work. Lee and her

> co-workers

> are now convinced, albeit reluctantly, that they are onto something. " The

> hypothesis is one that I wish were not true, " says her colleague David

> Jacobs

> of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

>

> Diabetes, and particularly its commonest form, type 2 (see " Sidebar:

> Diabetes basics " ), is practically everyone's business. The World Health

> Organization

> estimates that it already affects 180 million people worldwide, with the

> number predicted to more than double by

> 2030. Last year the epidemic cost $174 billion in the US alone, according

> to

> the American Diabetes Association.

>

> ========================================================

>

> Sidebar: Diabetes basics

>

> Diabetes has two main forms: type 1 and type 2. About 90 per cent of

> diabetics have type 2.

>

> Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which insulin-producing cells

> in

> the pancreas are progressively destroyed.

>

> Type 2 diabetes usually develops in adulthood, although it is now

> increasingly common in children. In this form, the pancreas either produces

> too little

> insulin, or cells in the liver, muscles and fat tissues fail to use it

> properly. Type 2 is most common in inactive, overweight people who carry

> their fat

> on their midriff.

>

> ========================================================

>

> The standard explanation for type 2 diabetes is that it is a " lifestyle

> disease " caused by laziness and gluttony. For at least a decade, however,

> epidemiologists have known that people briefly exposed to high

> concentrations of

> POPs face a modest increase in their risk of developing diabetes later in

> life.

> Those affected include the people of Seveso and US veterans who were

> exposed

> to dioxin- contaminated Agent Orange during the Vietnam war.

>

> Two years ago, Lee, Jacobs and others decided to see whether everyday

> exposure to POPs is also linked to diabetes. To their surprise and horror,

> they

> found that it is.

>

> For most people, POPs are inescapable: meat, fish and dairy products all

> contain them. They enter the food chain from sources such as pesticides,

> chemical manufacturing and incinerated waste, and accumulate in animals

> higher up in

> the chain. Once in the body they take up residence in fat.

>

> POPs have long been recognised as nasty substances: their effects include

> birth defects, cancer, immune dysfunction and endocrine disruption. Since

> the

> 1970s, various measures have been put in place to phase them out -- 12 of

> the

> worst POPs, known as the " dirty dozen " , were banned in 2004 -- but despite

> these efforts, POPs remain a significant presence in the environment and

> food

> chain, partly because many are still in use in the developing world, and

> partly because these chemicals can take decades to break down.

>

> Role of fat

>

> Prior to her 2005 introduction to POPs, Lee was working on a humble enzyme

> called gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), which is essential for maintaining

> antioxidant levels in the liver. She was puzzled to find that obesity

> combined

> with an elevated level of GGT is a strong predictor of diabetes, but

> obesity

> alone isn't. " I searched the literature and finally got an idea, " she says.

>

>

> As it turns out, GGT has an essential role to play in removing some

> pollutants, including POPs, from inside cells (Diabetologia, vol 51, p

> 402). Could

> increased GGT activity simply be a marker of exposure to POPs?

>

> To find out, Lee and her colleagues analysed data from more than 2000

> people

> in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which

> measured both diabetes status and bloodstream levels of POPs, among other

> things. They discovered that people with high levels of six different POPs

> in

> their bloodstream were much more likely to have diabetes, regardless of

> obesity

> (see diagram). The six POPs were chosen because they were detectable in at

> least 80 per cent of the participants.

>

> Taking into account factors such as weight, age, waist circumference and

> ethnic group, Lee calculated that in people with the highest combined

> levels of

> all six POPs the rate of diabetes was a massive 38 times greater than in

> those with the lowest levels (Diabetes Care, vol 29, p 1638). " The people

> who

> disagree with us will say it's all noise, " says Jacobs, " but it's pretty

> hard to

> get odds ratios of 38 with noise. "

>

> To her even greater surprise, Lee found that in people with undetectable

> levels of POPs the expected link between diabetes and body weight melted

> away --

> those who were obese were no more likely to have diabetes than their lean

> counterparts. " This suggests that POPs may be a more fundamental factor in

> the

> risk of diabetes than obesity, " says Lee. " The absolute risk of diabetes

> was

> extremely low among subjects with very low concentrations of POPs. "

>

> " The expected link between diabetes and body weight melted away " But fat is

>

> not off the hook just yet. While obesity alone appears not to be linked

> with

> diabetes, the study suggests that POPs plus obesity is bad news, and the

> fatter you are the worse it gets. When the researchers examined the link

> with

> body mass index, they found that in people with high levels of POPs the

> odds of

> being diabetic were much higher for the obese than the lean. This suggests

> that something about excess fat may be enhancing the toxicity of POPs. " It

> appears that obesity can increase the harmful effects, " says Lee.

>

> Of course, the findings do not prove that POPs cause diabetes. " This is an

> association between two things, not direct evidence of a causal link, "

> warns

> Oliver Jones, an environmental biochemist at the University of Cambridge.

> The

> idea deserves further investigation, though, he says.

>

> Lee and her colleagues acknowledge that their interpretation could be stood

>

> on its head. If diabetes causes the body to become less efficient at

> dealing

> with POPs, then higher levels of POPs in people with diabetes could be an

> effect of the disease, rather than its cause. Lee does not rule out this

> possibility, but thinks it unlikely. She points to a 2003 study by other

> researchers

> that found no relationship between diabetes and the rate at which POPs are

> eliminated from the body (Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health,

> vol

> 66, p 211 _http://www.precaution.org/lib/diabetes_and_dioxin.030310.pdf_

> (http://www.precaution.org/lib/diabetes_and_dioxin.030310.pdf) )

>

> The team also examined the link between POPs and a metabolic disorder

> called

> insulin resistance, in which muscle, fat and liver cells fail to use

> insulin

> properly and which often progresses to full-blown diabetes. Once again,

> they

> found that people whose blood contained the highest levels of POPs were

> most

> likely to have insulin resistance

> (Diabetes Care, vol 30, p 622

> _http://www.precaution.org/lib/pops_and_insulin_resistance.070301.pdf_

> (http://www.precaution.org/lib/pops_and_insulin_resistance.070301.pdf) ).

> The results add weight to the idea that POPs may be

> playing a vital role in the disease pathway from insulin resistance to

> diabetes,

> says Lee. " I am really excited about this. "

>

> Even so, she acknowledges two obvious objections to her work. First, while

> levels of POPs in the blood of Americans have been falling for a couple of

> decades, the diabetes epidemic is just taking off. Lee suggests that as

> obesity

> seems to make POPs more dangerous, its rising prevalence may have cancelled

>

> out any health improvements that should have followed the decline in POPs.

>

> A second question is why, if POPs are central to diabetes, the incidence of

>

> the disease is soaring not only in the meat-addicted west but also in

> countries such as India, where many millions are vegetarian. Lee's answer

> is that,

> while many POPs are banned in the west, some are still used as pesticides

> in

> developing countries. " The highest rate of increasing risk of type 2

> diabetes

> is observed in Asia and Africa, not North America with the highest obesity

> rate, " she says.

>

> To try to slot POPs into the complex diabetes jigsaw, it is worth taking a

> brief step into the mainstream to look at the role of fats, or lipids, in

> the

> disease. Type 2 diabetes was once seen mainly as a disorder of glucose

> metabolism. Now, says diabetes researcher Evan Rosen of Beth Israel

> Deaconess

> Medical Center in Boston, the focus has shifted, with many scientists

> considering

> that the primary problem lies with the metabolism of fats.

>

> For years, physiologists largely ignored fat cells, or adipocytes, seeing

> them as little more than passive energy silos. Recently, though, they have

> been

> revealed for what they are: highly active in producing both hormones that

> regulate energy, and inflammatory messenger chemicals that are important to

> the

> immune system (New Scientist, 16 September 2000, p 36). If adipocytes

> malfunction, the consequences can be widespread.

>

> When we eat energy-rich foods, our bodies have to store any excess energy

> not burned up by physical activity. Most is stored as fat in adipocytes,

> but

> when these eventually fill up, excess lipid spills over into other tissues,

>

> particularly the liver, muscles and the area around the heart. The presence

> of

> this " ectopic fat " has been linked to all sorts of health problems,

> including

> insulin resistance and diabetes.

>

> Just how might ectopic fat help to trigger diabetes, though? There is no

> simple answer and researchers still disagree about the possible mechanism.

> However, there are some clues.

>

> In animals ectopic fat is known to attract the attention of the immune

> system, which produces inflammatory messenger chemicals around it as though

> it

> were an infection. Interestingly, people with diabetes have chronically

> raised

> levels of these inflammatory chemicals, raising the question of whether

> inflammation caused by ectopic fat could be a factor in the disease.

>

> Ectopic fat also causes problems when muscle cells try to burn it to

> generate energy. In obese people this is a highly inefficient process,

> probably

> because their mitochondria -- the cell's power plants - function at a

> reduced

> capacity, says Rosen. Mitochondria in muscle cells are already known to

> work

> less efficiently in people with diabetes, and this year a team at Helsinki

> University Central Hospital in Finland found similar changes in obese

> people with

> no symptoms of diabetes (American Journal of Physiology -- Endocrinology

> and

> Metabolism, vol 295, p E148). " You end up with a half-burned lipid, " says

> Rosen.

>

> He speculates that this half-burned lipid acts like a magnet for reactive

> oxygen species (ROS), including free radicals and peroxides, which then

> inflict

> damage to the muscle cells themselves. There is now clear evidence that

> chronic damage from ROS -- known as oxidative stress -- helps to drive

> cells into

> insulin resistance. " If you block ROS, you can block insulin resistance, "

> says Rosen.

>

> If Lee is right, however, and POPs are at the root of diabetes, these ideas

>

> tell only half the story. So how might POPs be involved? Again, there are

> tantalising hints. Jones points out that POPs are known to bind to a family

> of

> receptors on cell nuclei known as PPARs. These are involved in lipid

> metabolism and are known not to work properly in people with diabetes; the

> diabetes

> drug troglitazone works by activating one member of the family, PPAR-gamma.

>

> People with an inherited disorder of this receptor are unusually prone to

> insulin resistance. Another intriguing link is that POPs are known to cause

>

> mitochondrial dysfunction, which some researchers think is the root cause

> of

> diabetes (Science, vol 307, p 384

> _http://www.precaution.org/lib/mitochondrial_dysfunction.050121.pdf_

> (http://www.precaution.org/lib/mitochondrial_dysfunction.050121.pdf) ).

>

> But none of this explains how POPs interact with obesity. It may be that

> obese people simply have a higher load of POPs in their bodies. Another

> possibility is that POPs in ectopic fat are particularly dangerous.

> Perhaps,

> speculates Lee, adipocytes are a relatively safe storage site for POPs.

> " Our body has

> to find some place to store them, " she says, " and in this sense, adipose

> tissue is a relatively safe organ. " The trouble might start when

> POP-contaminated ectopic fat starts to build up in the muscles and liver,

> exposing the

> organs to a direct toxic assault. " That way, the harmful effects of POPs

> could

> become more serious, " Lee suggests.

>

> Clearly more work is needed to establish the precise link between POPs and

> diabetes. For Jones, it is surprising that Lee's research has remained

> relatively neglected, especially given its public health implications. He

> does note,

> though, that other teams are starting to investigate the hypothesis. Julian

>

> Griffin and others at Cambridge have found that low-level mixtures of POPs

> can cause metabolic disturbances similar to those seen in type 2 diabetes.

>

> Rosen stresses that the lack of attention given to this research should not

>

> be seen as an indictment of the work, but instead reflects how deeply

> scientists specialise in their own areas. " We generally stay inside our

> silos, " he

> says. " It's incredibly difficult to move outside of them. " Another problem,

>

> says Jacobs, is that testing the hypothesis to destruction would require

> complex and long-term studies of the type that funding bodies are often

> reluctant

> to commit money to.

>

> If Lee is right, it is not good news for the diabetes epidemic. Even though

>

> many POPs are being phased out, they will take decades to clear from the

> food

> chain. Meanwhile, newer POPs such as brominated flame retardants continue

> to

> be manufactured in large quantities.

>

> There is perhaps one silver lining. If you need an extra incentive to stay

> lean, eat less meat and keep active, then knowing that toxic chemicals

> lurking

> in your body fat could be a sure route to diabetes might just be the

> motivation you're looking for.

>

> ==============

>

> Phyllida Brown is a writer based in Exeter, UK

>

> Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

>

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