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medpundit |
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Thursday, June 19, 2003Three chemicals widely used on corn and soybean crops have been implicated in low fertility among central Missouri men, according to a University of Missouri-Columbia study released this week. The study's author, Shanna Swan, reported earlier that the study group had lower sperm counts and impaired sperm quality, compared with men from several major cities. She then set out to determine why. Her conclusion: The herbicides alachlor and atrazine and the pesticide diazinon may be to blame. Problem is, those same men evidently have no problem conceiving children: Swan's findings are based on urine samples provided by men whose pregnant partners sought prenatal care at university clinics in Columbia. Which raises an obvious question: If the men were able to impregnate a partner, where's the problem? The researcher says it isn't fertility that's the issue, it's the fact that the sperm have been damaged in some way, indicating that the pesticides may be causing other sorts of cell damage. But, if they were causing significant cell damage, wouldn't there be an increase in cancer or other illnesses in those areas? Absent any clinical disease, it's hard to argue that the pesticides are causing significant harm. Another problem, according to the abstract (pdf file), is that the link between sperm quality and pesticide levels only held for Missouri residents, and not for residents of Minnesota. Makes one wonder if there's not some other factor accounting for the sperm damage in Missouri. posted by Sydney on 6/19/2003 08:18:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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