Association of Organochlorine Pesticides with Peripheral Neuropathy in Patients with Diabetes or Impaired Fasting Glucose

OBJECTIVE—Recent epidemiological studies have shown that background exposure to persistent organic pollutants (POPs)— xenobiotics accumulated in adipose tissue—is strongly associ-ated with type 2 diabetes. Hyperglycemia is the cause of long-term complications of diabetes as well as diabetes itself, and POPs are well-known neurotoxicants. This study was performed to explore whether POPs are associated with peripheral neurop-athy, a common long-term complication of diabetes, in people with glucose abnormalities. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—We studied cross-sectional associations of peripheral neuropathy with 25 POPs, each of which were detectable in at least 60 % of study subjects, in 246 subjects aged 40 years with diabetes or impaired fasting glucose (IFG) using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999–2002 datasets