PCBs Damage Sperm -- But No Dramatic Effect On Male Fertility

Research by an EU-supported international team of scientists has shown that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)[1] -- synthetic organic chemicals found widely in the environment and absorbed in the diet -- may damage sperm.

But, lead author Dr Marcello Spanò, of the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment (ENEA), stressed that the study had found no dramatic effects on human fertility and had not revealed any serious public health threat. However, the findings were a warning and further research was needed.

The study, reported on line (Thursday 13 October) in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction[2], also looked at dichlorodiphenyldichlorethylene (DDE) – a breakdown product of DDT[3] – but found that it did not appear to damage sperm DNA.

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EU Research Suggests That PCBs Damage Sperm -- But Finds No Dramatic Effect On Male Fertility