Contraceptives in drinking water and chemicals in some plastics may be to blame, scientists claim

Falling sperm counts could be caused by traces of the contraceptive pill in drinking water, a new study has claimed.

U.S. scientists say the sex hormone oestradiol – the birth control hormone that passes untreated through sewage plants – has an even larger effect on sperm than Bisphenol A or BPA, as it is widely known.

BPA is found in some plastics used to make food containers, bottles and coatings in tin cans, and is also commonly used in thermal paper in cash register receipts.

But researchers claim BPA can disrupt hormones, raising the risk of a wide number of health problems such as diabetes, obesity and cancer.

The chemical has already been banned in baby bottles in Europe because of safety fears.

But the transparent resin is still used to line most plastic and tin food packaging – despite the calls for an all-out ban by campaigners.

The UK Food Standards Agency says strict regulations mean that the health risk from food packaging is minimal.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned BPA from baby bottles in 2012, but said there was not enough evidence for a wider ban and has found the chemical safe at low levels.

However in the new study, Washington State University geneticists found a direct link between BPA and disrupted sperm production.

Writing in the journal PLOS Genetics, they say the chemical disrupts the delicate DNA interactions needed to create sperm.

In addition to the BPA effects, principle investigator Dr Pat Hunt saw an even larger effect on sperm by oestradiol, the birth control hormone that passes untreated through sewage plants.

She believes she and her team may have unearthed the reason why numerous studies have revealed sperm counts are falling.

The issue has been a subject of concern and since the early 1990s, when Danish researchers reported ‘a genuine decline in semen quality over the past 50 years,’ with possible implications for male fertility.

Two years ago, a large Spanish study warned that sperm counts are falling at an alarming rate – up to 38 per cent in a decade – with diet and lifestyle largely to blame.

Researchers from the University of Murcia found that even in young men, sperm concentration fell by an average of two per cent a year – and could soon hit levels where fertility is compromised.

Dr Hunt, author of the new study, has a long history of working with BPA, which is often found in plastic bottles, the linings of food and beverage cans, and thermal receipts.

Much of her work has documented its effect on female reproduction, from mice to monkeys.

She argues the study also bolsters the hypothesis that ‘oestrogen’ disruptors in the environment are at play.

‘This provides some real insight into what exactly might be going on,’ Hunt says. ‘It’s kind of bizarre because we got into it through a back door, not really starting out to look at that question.’

In the new study, Dr Hunt and her colleagues gave newborn male mice oral doses of BPA.

They also exposed mice to the synthetic oestrogen ethinyl oestradiol.

The researchers exposed the developing testis and saw that the sperm of exposed animals did a poorer job of meiosis, the process in which cells combine the genetic information of their parents.

As a result, more sperm died.

The study looked at three mice population: one outbred like humans and two other, very common strains that are inbred.

Researchers saw a ‘very strong effect’ on outbred mice and one inbred strain and no effect on the other inbred strain.

This would account for earlier researchers not seeing an effect on testes in earlier studies.

Dr Hunt said: ‘This mouse model would suggest that here’s actually a reason why these sperm counts would be falling.

‘We’re actually doing something to this process that’s going to cause the death of more cells as they’re trying to make sperm.

‘They’re going to get culled out by this quality-control mechanism and the upshot of that will be that if you do enough of this, you’ll drop sperm counts.

‘We’ve seen effects over the course of several decades. What about several generations? Infertility is becoming more common. Are we creating the perfect storm?

Written by Anna Hodgekiss and published by The Daily Mail, January 22, 2015.

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