The Influence of Pesticides, Solvents and Other Chemicals on Sperm Health

Have you ever wondered how much damage pesticides, solvents and other chemicals have on our health? They are practically present in our everyday lives: while we eat pesticides are found in absolutely every vegetable, fruit, grain and meat, while we clean: chemicals in cleaning products etc. Science claims people are generally exposed to low levels of pesticides, solvents and other chemicals, even though they are exposed on daily basis, these levels are too low to have an influence on people's health, and even more to have an influence on sperm health and male fertility.

However there are evidences that the claims of the scientists who claim that males are exposed to too low levels of pesticides, are simply not true, and as said there are studies who support this. A study that was conducted over a long periods of years compared the semen samples of men with varying exposures to organophosphorous pesticides found that men with the highest exposure to organophosphorus pesticides had the poorest sperm quality.

This is a direct proof that men who are regularly exposed to some chemical substances are more likely to be infertile than men who are not. At this point it is important to bring out that about 70% of the insecticides in current use in the United States are organophosphorus pesticides, and that these pesticides work by interfering with the nervous system of insects, a mechanism that also affects the human nervous system when people are exposed. For example many of the first-generation organochlorine pesticides were banned in the 1970s, but the agrochemical industry turned to the less persistent, and the use of these pesticides increased rapidly. The use of pesticides has increased drastically and organophosphorus pesticides represent approximately 70% of total insecticide use.

There is another study available that was conducted on men attending an Argentinean infertility clinic. The study found a correlation between pesticide exposure and sperm concentration, output and motility. The conclusion of the study was that the greater an individual's exposure was to pesticides, the greater was the chance that male sperm concentration, output, motility and proportion of morphologically normal sperm would be reduced. For example, one study also showed that exposure to glycol ether, a chemical that is commonly used in paints, has also been shown to increase the risk of suboptimal sperm production.

All these findings seem very logical and the results seem to be expected: it is absolutely logical that pesticides, solvents and other chemicals influence sperm health and cannot be beneficial for human (animal or plant) life. It seems like we don't need scientists to tell us that. The unfortunate factor is that the despite what scientists say little has changed: we are still massively exposed to pesticides. And the saddest part is that there are numerous pesticides which have not been studied in relation to male fertility and there is so much more research necessary regarding these.