The SCSA was the only measure of all standard semen analysis measures to detect a correlation between air pollution and semen quality in 18-year-old army conscripts from Teplice, Czech Republic. Teplice had a history of infertility and spontaneous abortions likely related to the fact of burning soft brown coal for both industry and home use. The subjects of the study were 18-year-old men registering for the military. Of concern, one-fourth of these men had DFI values of more than 30%, whereas healthy young men of this age typically have less than a 5% DFI (Rubes et al 2005).


Clinical Study for Pollution

In the mountain valley village of Teplice, Czech Republic, there was a high rate of infertility and miscarriages. The US EPA and Czech Republic Health Ministry sponsored a study (Rubes et al 2005) to determine the effects of valley smog during the winter inversion times as compared to the summer time cleaner air. The smog was produced by industrial and home burning of soft brown coal. 18-year-old army recruits in Teplice were compared to the recruits from Prachatic, a clean air mountain town.

The chart above shows that 90% of the young men had elevated %DFI values. 25% of these young men had values at the level (30%DFI) of being a risk for infertility - in spite of the fact of a normal semen evaluation! 18-20 yr old men normally have an approximate 5% DFI.

In a two year longitudinal study, the only semen sample measure that responded to the seasonal variation level of smog was the SCSA derived % DFI - the routine semen measures did not vary in response to the level of smog.

Industrial Pollution. Numerous industrial chemicals are of serious concern for general health including reproductive health. In contrast to years ago, the EPA and NIOSH more carefully monitor and regulate the level of exposure considered to be of no danger to health. For example, the figure below shows the data from a married man with couple idiopathic infertility. For the first 10 years he worked in an industrial firm with coded chemicals but without proper human shielding from exposure. The second ten years he wore adequate protection. During this time with natural intercourse this couple experienced 16 miscarriages and no live births. As seen in the figure the man had a very high SCSA defined %DFI, highly likely to be incompatible with normal embryo growth and development.

Clinical Study for Ambient Air Pollution