Could pollution make you fat?
My latest over at ACSH: Hysterical Headlines Debunked: Pollution Doesn't Cause Obesity.
Struggling to lose weight? Exposure to air pollution might be partially to blame. That's what recent headlines would have you believe, anyway. “A recent study reopens the conversation about obesity — and how to address it,” Desert News reported on October 27:
In a nutshell, researchers discovered that the more air pollution participants were exposed to, the likelier it was that they became obese. Specifically, women who were exposed to air pollution had a body fat increase of 4.5%
As always, there is much more to the story. Air pollution contributes to all sorts of nasty diseases, but obesity probably isn't one of them. Let's examine some of the important details that didn't make the headlines.
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