Air pollution is making women fat: study

quote:

---

A new study suggests that long-term air pollution exposure is linked to women gaining weight — particularly ladies in their late 40s and 50s, EurekAlert reported.

Observed women who were exposed to poor air quality, specifically higher levels of fine particles, such as nitrogen dioxide and ozone, had seen increases in their body size, according to study author Xin Wang, an epidemiology research investigator at the University of Michigan.

The exposure to air pollution was tied to higher body fat, fat proportion and lower lean mass for middle-aged women. EurekAlert noted that “body fat increased by 4.5%, or about 2.6 pounds."

The data came from a mix of 1,654 white, black, Chinese and Japanese women whose median age was 50. They had been tracked for eight years from 2000 to 2008.

---