Fall in fertility rates may be linked to fossil fuel pollution
Danish scientists urge more research into impact of exposure to toxic chemical pollutants from fossil fuels
Decreasing fertility rates may be linked to pollution caused by fossil fuel burning, a review of scientific studies has found.
Over the past 50 years childbirth has steadily decreased. The study focused on Denmark, but the trend is also seen in other industrialised nations. One in 10 Danish children are born with assisted reproduction and more than 20% of men never have children, according to the researchers. This decrease seems to have started at the beginning of industrialisation. Experts have warned the trend could lead to an unbalanced demographic with too few younger people to support older generations.
“We know too little about infertility in the population,” said Niels Erik Skakkebæk, a professor at the University of
Copenhagen, Denmark, and lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Reviews Endocrinology.
Falling birthrates are often chalked up to cultural and socioeconomic factors, such as the rise of access to planned parenthood, contraception and abortion, and the changing role of women in society, as education and participation in the workforce has delayed child
bearing. But a growing body of research has shown growing rates of human infertility due to biological reasons including 74,000 yearly cases of testicular cancer, insufficient sperm and egg quality, premature puberty in young women, and an increase in the number of congenital malformations in male infant genitalia.
Such a trend cannot be explained genetically because evolution takes place over longer periods of time and more generations, so Skakkebæk and his colleagues are urging the scientific community to look at the impact of environmental exposure to toxic chemical pollutants from fossil fuels.
“So much of modern life originates from fossil fuels,” said Skakkebæk. “We don’t think about it. When we buy a pair of shoes made of chemicals originally produced from fossil fuels.” Fossil fuels are ubiquitous and they have been found in people’s blood, urine, semen, placenta and breast milk, as well as their fatty tissue. Many fossil fuel pollutants are endocrine disruptors, meaning they interfere with the body’s hormonal systems and have a negative effect on reproductive health.