Onm-9: Pollution and Fertility

Air is our main contact with the environment in which wefind ourselves. Every day, we breathe in 15 kg of air; that’s more than our daily food intake. Air, in cities and confined environments where houses are really close together, consists of particles of different sizes charged of chemical pollutants. The finer particles will come into contact with the alveoli and will allow some pollutants go directly into the bloodstream, resulting in diseases. Our environment is directly linked to emergence of diseases. Purifying the air in your house becomes vital. Thanks to new technological methods, it is possible to purify the air you breathe by reducing the number of micro-particles. Some other toxic chemical that can be found in the air we breathe at home are glycol ethers. They can cause infertility in men and women. In recent years, numerous studies showed that exposure to environmental air pollutants affected reproductive functions and in particular, produced adverse effects on pregnancy outcomes. Increased circulating Pb levels are also associated with adverse changes in sperm count, ejaculate volume, percentage of motile sperm, swimming velocity and morphology. Total sperm count and concentration were shown to decrease with increasing concentrations of blood Pb. Blood Pb levels are also inversely correlated with the percentage of live sperm found that even moderate exposure to Pb significantly reduced human semen quality but they did not find any conclusive evidence for Pb-related derangement of male reproductive endocrine function.Interestingly, Pb accumulates in male reproductive organs; human testes and sperm contain numerous potassium channels through which metallic toxicants can enter into mature sperm (Pb can compete with, or even replace the Zn in human protamine at two different sites, so causing a conformational change in the protein. This interaction adversely affects sperm chromatin condensation , recently observed that sperm concentration was reduced by 49% in men with a blood Pb concentration >50 μg/dl; however, there was no indication of a linear trend of lower sperm concentration with increasing blood Pb values, and sperm chromatin deterioration was not correlated with blood Pb concentration. The comparative evaluation of sperm parameters, absorption markers and environmental concentrations indicates that Pb is probably causing the impaired spermatogenesis. Alteration of sperm function could be considered a precocious marker of detrimental toxicological effects. High rates of air pollution can reduce the number of boys born and may be linked to increased rates of miscarriage, the conference was told. Pollution from air, food or water, or it might be radiation, thermal heat or chemical additives in food affects fertility. Men might improve their fertility by reducing how much pollution they breathe in. The dirtier the air, the lower a man's sperm count and the more sperm with fragmented DNA he produces. A study was conducted on thousands of patients in England discovered that women who regularly breathe in polluted space, have 24 percent smaller chance to get pregnant compared tothose who live in less polluted areas. Nitrogen dioxide, a toxin produced by the exhaust of cars and trucks and gas stove, have a negative impact on the opportunities of women to have babies.