Air Pollution Linked To Poor Sperm Quality In Chinese Men, Finds Study

Air pollution could be to blame for poor sperm quality, specifically sperm motility, based on a new study published in the journal JAMA Networks.

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Researchers at the School of Medicine of Tongji University in Shanghai looked at records of 33,876 men from 340 Chinese cities with an average age of 34 years, with different levels of pollution exposure and whose wives got pregnant with the help of assisted reproductive means with their sperm between January 2013 and December 2019.

They primarily observed patterns between semen quality along with the level of pollution particulate matter the participant had been exposed to. The particulate matter was split between three categories -- particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometres in diameter, between 2.5 and 10 micrometres and 10 micrometres throughout 90 days before they visited the hospital for semen collection.

For determining the quality of the semen, researchers focussed on factors like sperm count, concentration and sperm motility. Even though they couldn¡¯t find a considerable link between air pollution and sperm quality with respect to sperm count, concentration, they did notice that the more a participant was exposed to smaller particulate matter, the lower both the progressive (the ability to swim forward) and the total sperm motility (sperm¡¯s ability to swim in general) was.

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When they were specifically exposed to particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometres, there was around 3.6 percent decrease in sperm motility. On the other hand, exposure to particulate matter of 10 micrometres in diameter resulted in less than 2.4 percent sperm motility.

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This indicates that it is possible that different sizes of particulate matter could have different effects on semen quality since the smaller they are, the deeper in the lungs they can travel.

The impact was more when the exposure took place during the initial part of the 90 days of sperm creation that¡¯s often referred to as spermatogenesis. This could mean that particulate matter could be affecting the sperm on a genetic level. They do highlight that these are mere speculations and more research is needed in this area to come to a definitive conclusion.

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