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How Danger Chemicals 'Harm Male Fertility'

Posted on: Friday, 14 October 2005, 18:00 CDT

By JULIE WHELDON

TOXIC chemicals found in food can make men less fertile, scientists warned yesterday.

Men exposed to high levels of the pollutants called PCBs were found to be 60 per cent more likely to have damaged sperm.

The study showed that the chemicals were a major threat to those with existing fertility problems.

The toxins are found in food such as oily fish, meat and dairy products.

The study will add to fears that environmental pollutants could be to blame for growing fertility problems.

Sperm counts in men have plummeted by almost a third over the last decade and some experts have blamed ' genderbending' chemicals.

PCBs short for polychlorinated biphenyls are still widely found in the environment despite a 20-year ban.

The industrial chemicals, formerly used in flame retardants, electrical items and plastics, are thought to have entered the food chain through contaminated water and soil.

The chemicals, which are also linked to cancer, can build up in animals and fish which are then eaten by humans. The researchers examined PCB levels in the blood of 700 men from Greenland, Sweden, Warsaw and Ukraine.

They also looked at the men's lifestyles and measured levels of DNA damage to their sperm.

Men with the highest levels of PCB exposure typically had 60 per cent more sperm damage.

Most of the exposure to the chemicals was through diet, according to the EU-backed study published in the journal Human Reproduction.

Ten per cent of the sperm exposed to the highest amounts of PCB showed signs of DNA damage.

The study suggested the level of harm may depend in part on genes and ethnic background because Inuit men reacted differently to others in the study.

Dr Allan Pacey, a fertility expert at Sheffield University, said men could father a child even with high levels of damaged sperm and the toxins might not be at fault for falling fertility.

But he added: 'If a man is already sub-fertile, it could make their situation worse.' Earlier this year research revealed how chemicals found in thousands of household products could damage the development of reproductive organs in baby boys while still in the womb.

And just last month a study suggested that exposure to air pollution could damage sperm.

Last year research in the journal Science suggested that particularly high levels of danger chemicals were found in Scottish farmed salmon.

However the Scottish fish farm industry said the research was totally flawed adding that the Government says men can safely eat up to four portions of oily fish each week.

A spokesman for Scottish Quality Salmon said the Science paper was criticised by organisations including the World Health Organisation The Foods Standards Agency said PCBs were present at extremely low levels in all foods and it was not possible to avoid them. A spokesman said the amounts eaten in a typical day were too small to be harmful, but could build up in fat over time.

Source: Daily Mail; London (UK)

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