ArticleBritish journal of industrial medicine1985
Sperm as an indicator of reproductive risk among petroleum refinery workers.
Article in British journal of industrial medicine, 1985. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and reproductive health outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Temporal trends in sperm count: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis.Human reproduction update · 2017Pooled it
- Systematic review of the association between oil and natural gas extraction processes and human reproduction.Fertility and sterility · 2016Pooled it
- The question of declining sperm density revisited: an analysis of 101 studies published 1934-1996.Environmental health perspectives · 2000Pooled it
- The Disappearing Sperms: Analysis of Reports Published Between 1980 and 2015.American journal of men's health · 2017Review
- Identifying environmental risk to male reproductive function by occupational sperm studies: logistics and design options.Occupational and environmental medicine · 1996Review
- Sister chromatid exchanges in lymphocytes of petroleum retailers.British journal of industrial medicine · 1993Article
- Feasibility of studying subfertility using retrospective self reports.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 1989Article
- Assessing the reproductive health of men with occupational exposures.Asian journal of andrologyReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A questionnaire study of men in a wastewater treatment plant of a petroleum refinery showed twice the rate of fetal loss in the period during employment in the plant compared with the periods before and after. Questions regarding the interpretation of that study and continuing concern about reproductive risk prompted us to perform a cross sectional evaluation of sperm concentration and morphology. After adjustment for an abstinence period, the mean sperm concentration of the 74 unexposed men did not differ significantly from that of the 34 exposed men (79.9 million/cm3 v 68.2 million/cm3, p(1) = 0.16). The two groups also had a similar proportion of sperm with abnormal morphology (49.1% v 44.5%, p(1) = 0.94). This lack of association remained when degree of exposure, age, use of alcohol and marijuana, past illness or fever, use of baths or sauna, and history of urological problems were considered. These results are most consistent with the absence of sperm mediated reproductive problems.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.