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2. Organochlorine compounds
Four papers reported studies on male infertility outpatients in
relation to exposure to organochlorine compounds including PCBs.
Lower seminal quality was associated with organochlorine
concentrations in serum (Rozati et al. 2002, Hauser et al. 2002,
Hauser et al. 2003) or serum and seminal plasma (Dallinga et al.
2002). A synchronic study on ordinary young men in Sweden (Richthof
et al. 2003) revealed an inverse correlation of PCBs and their
metabolites with sperm count and sperm motility. A case-control
study by Hsu et al. (2003) on male yusho patients directly
exposed to PCBs/PCDFs in Taiwan indicated lower sperm count and
more frequent abnormal sperm morphology.
3. Phthalates
Two reports on phthalate exposure in the U.S. were found. A
synchronic study by Duty et al. (2003-1) on male infertility
outpatients revealed association of sperm DNA damage parameter
detected by comet assay with monoethylphthalate concentration in
urine. No correlation was found for other phthalate metabolites.
A case-control study by the same authors (Duty et al. 2003-2)
found dose-response relationships between urine level of
monobutyl- and monobenzylphthalate and sperm count and motility.
4. Styrene
Two reports were published describing a case-control study by an
Italian group on workers in a fiber-reinforced plastic plant.
According to Migliore et al. (2002), no significant difference
was observed between the exposed group and control (residents
near the plant) in findings in usual semen examination, but
fragmentation ratio of sperm nuclear DNA determined by comet
assay was significantly higher in the exposed group. It was
concluded that evaluation of sperm nuclear DNA by comet assay is
a method to estimate effects of styrene exposure to sperm more
sensitive than usual semen check. Naccarati (2003) did not find
significant difference of effects on the frequency of sperm
chromosomal aneuploidy and diploidy on the two groups, and
concluded that the anomalous sperm chromosomes could be related
to factors such as age and smoking habit.
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