In the tradition of Silent Spring and The Sixth Extinction, an urgent, “disturbing, empowering, and essential” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) book about the ways in which chemicals in the modern environment are changing—and endangering—human sexuality and fertility on the grandest scale, from renowned epidemiologist Shanna Swan.
In 2017, author Shanna Swan and her team of researchers completed a major study. They found that over the past four decades, sperm levels among men in Western countries have dropped by more than 50 percent. They came to this conclusion after examining 185 studies involving close to 45,000 healthy men. The result sent shockwaves around the globe—but the story didn’t end there. It turns out our sexual development is changing in broader ways, for both men and women and even other species, and that the modern world is on pace to become an infertile one.
How and why could this happen? What is hijacking our fertility and our health? Count Down unpacks these questions, revealing what Swan and other researchers have learned about how both lifestyle and chemical exposures are affecting our fertility, sexual development—potentially including the increase in gender fluidity—and general health as a species. Engagingly explaining the science and repercussions of these worldwide threats and providing simple and practical guidelines for effectively avoiding chemical goods (from water bottles to shaving cream) both as individuals and societies, Count Down is “staggering in its findings” (Erin Brockovich, The Guardian) and “will serve as an awakening” (The New York Times Book Review).
Longlisted for the 2022 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
“If you’ve smugly enjoyed the dystopian worlds of The Handmaid’s Tale (where infertility is triggered in part by environmental pollutants) or Children of Men (where humanity is on the precipice of extinction)—and believed that these stories were rooted firmly in fantasy—Shanna Swan’s Count Down will serve as an awakening….[It] chronicles rising human infertility and warns of dire consequences for our species if this trend doesn’t slow….An important book for anyone concerned about the environment, pollution, successful childbearing or declining health of the human species.”
—New York Times Book Review
"Swann’s book is staggering in its findings….The rapid death and decline of sperm must be addressed, and it must be addressed now. There simply is no time to lose.”
—Erin Brockovich, The Guardian
"An alarming compendium of research. . .the book is full of solid science, with detailed, clear explanations and proposals for how to reduce the harm caused by common chemicals."
—New York Review of Books
