ArticleFertility and sterility2023
Environmental exposure to industrial air pollution is associated with decreased male fertility.
Article in Fertility and sterility, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Phthalates as the silent saboteurs of male fertility via changes in semen quality: a systematic review.Reproductive biology and endocrinology : RB&E · 2026Pooled it
- Wildfire smoke exposure is associated with decreased sperm concentration and total motile sperm count.Fertility and sterility · 2026Article
- Protecting laboratory air quality and comparing clinical assisted reproductive technology cycle outcomes before, during and after wildfire events: a retrospective cohort study.Frontiers in reproductive health · 2026Article
- Environmental determinants of male infertility: emerging threats and technological interventions.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- Male reproductive health under environmental, pharmacological, and disease influences: a scoping review.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Review
- The impact of chemical pollution and warming on male fertility: a narrative review by the Special Interest Group "Environment and Fertility" of the Italian Society of Fertility and Sterility and Reproductive Medicine (SIFES-MR).Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2025Review
- Decrease or increase in sperm concentration? The data among fertile Chinese males in 40 years.Journal of assisted reproduction and genetics · 2025Article
- A scoping review of the role of heritability and environmental exposures in the development and severity of benign prostatic hyperplasia.Translational andrology and urology · 2025Review
- Associations Between Endocrine-Disrupting Chemical Exposure and Fertility Outcomes: A Decade of Human Epidemiological Evidence.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Harnessing the power of miRNAs for precision diagnosis and treatment of male infertility.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2025Review
- Male Factor Infertility and the Rural-Urban Continuum.Urology · 2025Article
- Spermatology: Current Methods to Study Sperm Classical Variables.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Community-Engaged Research and the Use of Open Access ToxVal/ToxRef In Vivo Databases and New Approach Methodologies (NAM) to Address Human Health Risks From Environmental Contaminants.Birth defects research · 2024Article
- Article
- Describing patterns of familial cancer risk in subfertile men using population pedigree data.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- Reproductive toxicology: keeping up with our changing world.Frontiers in toxicology · 2024Article
- How Can Outdoor Air Pollutants Adversely Affect the Women's Fertility? Systematic Review.Advanced biomedical research · 2024Review
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10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo understand how chronic exposure to industrial air pollution is associated with male fertility through semen parameters.
designRetrospective cohort study. PATIENTS: Men in the Subfertility, Health, and Assisted Reproduction cohort who underwent a semen analysis in the two largest healthcare systems in Utah from 2005-2017 with ≥1 measured semen parameter (N = 21,563). INTERVENTION(S): Residential histories for each man were constructed using locations from administrative records linked through the Utah Population Database. Industrial facilities with air emissions of nine endocrine-disrupting compound chemical classes were identified from the Environmental Protection Agency Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators microdata. Chemical levels were linked with residential histories for the 5 years before each semen analysis.
main outcome measuresSemen analyses were classified as azoospermic or oligozoospermic (< 15 M/mL) using World Health Organization cutoffs for concentration. Bulk semen parameters such as concentration, total count, ejaculate volume, total motility, total motile count, and total progressive motile count were also measured. Multivariable regression models with robust standard errors were used to associate exposure quartiles for each of the nine chemical classes with each semen parameter, adjusting for age, race, and ethnicity, as well as neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage.
resultsAfter adjustment for demographic covariates, several chemical classes were associated with azoospermia and decreased total motility and volume. For exposure in the 4th relative to 1st quartile, significant associations were observed for acrylonitrile (β CONCLUSION(S): Several significant associations between chronic low-level environmental exposure to endocrine-disrupting compound air pollution from industrial sources and semen parameters were observed. The strongest associations were seen for increased odds of azoospermia and declines in total motility and volume. More research is needed to further explore additional social and exposure factors as well as expand on the risk posed to male reproductive health by the studied chemicals.
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