By IANS
Toronto : Air pollution is a threat not only to your lungs, but also sperm.
A new Canadian study has revealed that pollution can cause not only fall in sperm count but also sperm mutations which “have the potential to affect disease incidence in the descendents of exposed individuals.”
The study, published in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week, was carried out by Health Canada on mice in the Hamilton Harbour area near Toronto.
Researchers from Canada and the US National Center for Toxicological Research studied the impact of polluted air from Hamilton Harbour on the mice kept in a shed for 10 weeks.
The shed was constantly exposed to polluted air coming from two steel mills and a highway, lying within its two-kilometre radius. After 10 weeks, the researchers compared the impact of pollution on these mice to another group which breathed filtered, pollutant-free air inside a chamber.
They found 60 per cent increase in sperm DNA mutation in the mice exposed to polluted air, compared to those who inhaled filtered air.
The researchers were surprised to find that the sperm mutations persisted even after the mice were no longer exposed to polluted air.
The persistence of the sperm DNA mutation, they concluded, indicated that pollution had changed in the germ-line cells which produce sperm.
The mutated sperm genetic composition, they warned, has the “potential to affect disease incidence in the descendents of exposed individuals.”
In view of the rising pollution levels in the world, the study said, “Increased germ-line DNA mutation frequency may cause population-level changes in genetic composition and disease.”
This confirmed the findings of an earlier study by McMaster University in Hamilton near here which found that the mice that breathed polluted air passed twice as many mutations to their offspring, compared to those who breathed pollutant-free air.