A pesticide commonly used on the turf at golf courses was linked to a whopping 250% increase in diabetes risk to the workers who apply the pesticides, according to one of the largest studies of its kind, by the National Institutes of Health. The chemical, trichlorfon, was associated with an 85% increase in risk of diabetes for even infrequent users, and a 250% increase in risk for those who had applied it more than 10 times. Of those who used the chemical frequently, 8.5% developed diabetes, versus 3.5% of those who had never used it. The pesticides main current use is on turf, such as at golf courses.

It was the most extreme connection researchers found between pesticide applicators and diabetes, but not the only one. Use of any of the pesticides studied for more than 100 days in a lifetime increased diabetes risk 17%. The other pesticides studied were aldrin, chlordane, heptachlor, dichlorvos, alachlor and cynazine, all of which are chlorinated pesticides. Diabetes affects nearly 21 million Americans, and rates of disease have been increasing dramatically in recent years, particularly among children.

"The results suggest that pesticides may be a contributing factor for diabetes along with known risk factors such as obesity, lack of exercise and having a family history of diabetes," said Dale Sandler, Ph.D., chief of the Epidemiology Branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Services and co-author on the paper. "Although the amount of diabetes explained by pesticides is small, these new findings may extend beyond the pesticide applicators in the study."