London, March 08: Increasing pollution in
Italy is affecting the fertility of young men in that country,
according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Pisa have found that
young Italian males, living in urban areas, are being hampered
by the dioxins and other pollution in the atmosphere, a newspaper reported today.
The researchers studied a group of 10,000 Italian
males, of an average age of 29, and found that their sperm
count is in "free fall".
They found that the participants had only 60 million
sperm per millilitre, compared with 71 million in the 1970s.
Worse still, the proportion of active sperm had halved, from
60 percent to 30 percent.
The worst results came in Italy's big cities and in
the rubbish-strewn region of Campania.
However, according to the researchers, the most
fertile men live in the more rural regions, including Tuscany,
Puglia and Sicily.
Earlier, scientists at the University of Naples
claimed to have found evidence that car pollution was reducing
the quality of sperm in young and middle-aged men in Italy.
They had blamed Nitrogen Oxide and lead in car exhaust fumes.
"Our study demonstrates that continuous exposure
to traffic pollutants impairs sperm quality in young and
middle-aged men," lead researcher Michele de Rosa had said.
Before coming to their conclusion, de Rosa and his
team had examined the sperm of 85 men employed at tollgates
on highways. The males were exposed to traffic fumes for six
hours a day.
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, March 08, 2008, 00:00