Exposure to organochlorine pesticides such as DDT in teenage years may lead to defective sperm and fertility problems later in life, a new study has claimed.
The research is the first to look for associations between exposure to these chemicals in the teenage years and abnormalities in sperm that are associated with fertility problems later in life.
"We need more research to find out how these organochlorine pollutants may be affecting the maturation of the testicles and their function," said lead author Melissa Perry, from Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University.
"Exposure to these chemicals in adolescence may lead to reproductive problems years later," said Perry.
Perry led a team that studied sperm and blood samples taken from 90 men who lived in The Faroe Islands, an island community in the North Atlantic.
The island's population consumes a seafood-rich diet, including pilot whale meat and blubber, which leads to higher-than-average exposures to organochlorine pollutants including polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs and the main metabolite of the insecticide DDT.
Blood samples taken at age 14 were available for 33 of the men included in the study.
In addition to measuring the amount of organochlorine pesticides in the blood samples, the team used a sperm imaging method to detect sperm disomy, a condition in which sperm cells have an abnormal number of chromosomes.
The team found that men with higher levels of the DDT metabolite and PCBs, both as adults and at age 14, had significantly higher rates of sperm disomy.
The results fit with an earlier study that Perry led investigating US men who were part of a couple seeking help for infertility.
That study found that those with higher levels of organochlorine chemicals in their blood showed the same kind of sperm abnormalities.
Organochlorine pesticides such as DDT were used extensively through the 1960s and are now banned in the US.
However, they are still used in some tropical countries and even in places that don't use them anymore these chemicals still linger in the soil and water.
"Most people can reduce their exposure to PCBs and DDT by cutting back on foods that are high in animal fats and choosing fish wisely," Perry said.
