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Earth Science

Air Pollution May Affect Sperm Quality, Says Study (theguardian.com) 58

Air pollution may affect semen quality, specifically sperm motility -- the ability of sperm to swim in the right direction -- according to a new study analysing the sperm of over 30,000 men in China. From a report: The research, published today in the journal JAMA Networks, also suggests that the smaller the size of the polluting particles in the air, the greater the link with poor semen quality. "Our findings suggest that smaller particulate matter size fractions may be more potent than larger fractions in inducing poor sperm motility," wrote the authors of the paper. The researchers believe that these findings highlight yet another reason for the need to reduce exposure to air pollution among men in their reproductive age.
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Air Pollution May Affect Sperm Quality, Says Study

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  • Excellent! (Score:1, Insightful)

    Not only are the covidiots killing themselves because they won't get vaccinated or wear a mask, they're also reducing their ability to reproduce by rollin coal.

    We need to thank them for helping to keep the population numbers down while simultaneously increasing the overall IQ.

  • This is one more arrow in the quiver for guys that like to fuck, but don't want to have kids!!

    To some, this is GREAT news!!

  • It's not all bad for everyone! :)
  • by iamnotx0r ( 7683968 ) on Thursday February 17, 2022 @12:50PM (#62276937)
    Actually, you re not the Man you father was. https://www.forbes.com/sites/n... [forbes.com]

    There seems to be a larger problem with the youth of today, other than air pollution.

    Perhaps the problem is insulting being the old manly, and the cultural desire to re-gender what manly means today.
    • by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      The interest in such therapies may be because movies and pop culture exaggerate body differences these days. Men are shown with bulging muscles and women with DD's. Older shows didn't have that as often. Charlton Heston was considered a "hunk" in his day, but he looks wimpy when shirtless by today's standards.

    • Like how automation killed 70% of middle class jobs [businessinsider.com] or how the entire American SW is running out of water [slashdot.org] or how despite being better trained/educated then their grandparents and parents they earn less inflation adjusted (even using the dodgy inflation #s that somehow ignore the cost of cars, education and housing have doubled or tripled).

      Saw a guy on Twitter, college degree, crime scene photographer, he looked up the home his 23 year old single mom bought with her GM factory wages in the 60s. It was 11
      • If I sound bitter it's because I've been trying to buy a house for 10 years

        Maybe you need a job that pays more money...OR, perhaps you need to look around the US for areas with better housing prices?

        There are LOTs of places out there where you can get a lot of house STILL for $250K or so.

        I know in past 3 years prices have skyrocketed, but prior to that with insanely low interest rates, if you wanted a nice house you could readily get one.

        It may not be in NYC, or SF, but this is a large country with nic

        • There are LOTs of places out there where you can get a lot of house STILL for $250K or so.

          I lost a $190k house during the Great Recession because I couldn't afford the nearly $1,400/mo payment (taxes, mortgage, and insurance).

          One really can't afford the average house on the average single-earner median US income. It's probably why over 36% of Americans are stuck being renters.

          • by jbengt ( 874751 )

            One really can't afford the average house on the average single-earner median US income.

            My son bought a $95,000 house (yes, its a crappy little house in a cheap neighborhood) with a less than $20 an hour job. I bought a $55,000 house in the 80s while making $15,000 a year and was happy I got it at an interest rate of just 12.125% (not a typo). I really wanted a couple of better houses, but couldn't afford them.

            The US median household income is around $65,000 to $70,000 a year. The median house price i

            • having a job in a part of the country where there aren't all that many. Lots of us had to move to major cities to get the jobs that pay that median, and the vulture capitalists followed, buying up and renting out everything.

              And there ARE NO SMALLER HOUSES. Not in major housing markets. e.g. the ones with jobs. They're being bought up and rented out, and the only thing being built are luxury McMansions because the reason those smaller houses were getting built was government subsidies. Those subsidies we
      • If I sound bitter it's because I've been trying to buy a house for 10 years

        You can't buy a house because the prices are based on a feedback loop. Buyers make offers based on the size home loan a bank approves them for, and the loan gets approved if the house meets the appraised value. The appraised value is based on what neighboring homes sold for, which is based on offers that buyers made based on what the bank approved them for and the appraised value of the homes, which is based on the value of what the neighboring homes sold for..

        This happened because we treat homes like a t

        • by BranMan ( 29917 )

          There is undeveloped land out there - and a lot of it is going to be tough to build on (zoning, access, wetlands, offset requirements, etc.), but that may be what you mean by red tape.

          Trouble is, the land is too expensive! They price the land by looking at what the nearest homes sell for, and deducting an amount to cover building a house on it. So it really ends up no cheaper to build it yourself.

          Part of the same feedback loop.

          • There are no JOBs there or water.

            This isn't idle speculation. A bunch of folks in Az moved to suburban communities and didn't get municipal hookups to water. They were getting it trucked in, and the city just cut them off. Their homes are now worthless. They're not rich enough to get a congressman's ear, so they're just screwed.

            If we had the trillions in infrastructure spending the Baby Boomers enjoyed they'd get their water. But we don't, because the Boomers wanted Tax Cuts (most of which they neve
          • rouble is, the land is too expensive! They price the land by looking at what the nearest homes sell for, and deducting an amount to cover building a house on it. So it really ends up no cheaper to build it yourself.

            Arent you being a bit myopic and applying what you have observed in a single area (california is my guess) and deciding thats just the way it is everywhere?

            Thats not the way it is everywhere else, at all. In most of the continental united states, land is cheap. Your problem is a local government zoning problem and that means it isnt even close to a problem everywhere, at all.

            Land is cheap because it is not a scare resource. What is a scarce resource is a permit to build and live on the lot. A local gov

            • by BranMan ( 29917 )

              Thanks, that gave me a good chuckle.

              I live in the NorthEast you insensitive clod! Seriously, I live in southern NH. And you may be able to get land, oh, maybe in the real boonies an hour from any real hint of civilization for 20K an acre (that is on a road, that is buildable, that does have utilities within reach), but you sure can't get that anywhere around here.

              I'm on 1 1/3rd acres, and my land valuation is about 10 times that 20K. So, yeah, I kind of do know the NorthEast. I can't speak for Cali, but

        • You've got forces at work creating artificial scarcity (zoning and density restrictions are a big part of it), to protect peoples' "investments".

          This is the really stupid part. Increasing my property value doesn't help me; it hurts me. It makes my taxes go up!
          It's like people treat their property value as a score, and think these ridiculous jumps mean they're winning.

          • This means virtually every American is desperately praying that their house will shoot up so much in value that they'll be able to sell it to the next generation and retire off the proceeds. It's the only investment any of them have and none of them know enough about how the economy works to understand the reason they have that investment is because the government basically gave it to them in the form of indirect subsidies and then the investment shot up in value because those subsidies were pulled resultin
    • No, it's science. Science holds no regard for the cognitive dissonance you may feel upon finding out that "rollin' coal" might actually be making manly men less manly.

      There seems to be a larger problem with the youth of today, other than air pollution.

      It has also been said numerous times before, but more freedom for others doesn't mean less for you. If the youth of today are less hung up on fitting into traditional gender roles, good for them (this planet isn't going to run out of humans). They also probably enjoy new music you can't stand and use strange slang, too. You're still free t

  • Now burning fuel confuses the little guys. I guess the only solution is to have a lot more sex to make up for all of that low quality sperm.
    Practice makes perfect. Spermnastics Yoga Pilates sounds like a good alternative to spin class.

  • From the article, " with a varied degree of exposure to air pollution among them, and whose wives got pregnant through assisted reproduction technology with their sperm between January 2013 and December 2019." So the sample group is already using artificial methods to get pregnant.
  • We're not at risk of extinction from low sperm count. Ocean ecology collapse and food shortages will be a few orders of magnitude bigger hit to our population growth rate.

    People who are young and don't live in areas that have high population density and thus high air pollution have a huge advantage at reproduction. Seems to me that the system works as it should.

    If you are a successful professional, in your late 30's, and want children. You may have to consider adoption or a fertility doctor. This should not

    • All they have to do is NOT live in a big city. While I really love our biggest cities, there are tons of decent professional job out there in the under-1-million city regions. There are a lot of them, and quality of life is actually better in some ways.
  • May Affect Spam Quality.

    "... only stupid people are breeding" -- Harvey Danger

  • Air Pollution May Affect Sperm Quality, Says Study

    Well stop shooting it through the air, nerds!

  • As soon as a country or region is industrialized enough to poison the air enough, Nature finds a way to reduce reproduction.

  • by Dirk Becher ( 1061828 ) on Thursday February 17, 2022 @06:30PM (#62278119)

    Don't let smokers give you a blowjob.

  • ... humanity will destroy itself due to overpopulation long before our reproductive capacity will pose any problem.

"If there isn't a population problem, why is the government putting cancer in the cigarettes?" -- the elder Steptoe, c. 1970

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