Approximately half of all cases of reported infertility in the United States involve malefactor, which is commonly diagnosed via standardized analysis of semen quality parameters that include sperm concentration, motility, and morphology.
Among several factors, environmental chemical exposure is associated with poor semen quality. A pilot study, performed in Dr. Kannan’s laboratory in the Wadsworth Center's Division of Environmental Health Sciences, examined associations between organophosphate pesticides and semen quality in 42 healthy, young men showed that organophosphate pesticide exposure was associated with lower overall semen quality.
The pilot study, published in the journal Antioxidants, suggests that the concentrations of dialkylphosphate metabolites of organophosphate pesticides measured in urine was inversely associated with sperm motility. This study contributes to the literature by examining the extent to which routine exposure to organophosphate pesticides, common in the conventional food supply, may be negatively associated with semen quality in healthy men from the general population.