What polluted air adds to India’s rising blood sugar

Chennai breathes far cleaner air than Delhi. A study that followed 12,064 adults in the two cities put the typical yearly level of fine particles around Chennai homes between 2010 and 2016 at 40.2 micrograms per cubic metre, just above the national standard of 40, against 101.5 in Delhi.

In both cities, the dirtier a person’s air, the likelier they were to develop type 2 diabetes. The World Health Organization’s theme for World Diabetes Day, on November 14 this year, is early action.

The sixth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6), carried out in 2023-24, found 17.8% per cent of women and 20.9% per cent of men aged 15 and above had with high blood sugar or were on medicine for it, up from 13.5% and 15.6% per cent in NFHS-5, conducted in 2019-21. In Chennai district, nearly 3 in 10 three in ten women fall in the group.