Male occupational reproductive hazards

Abstract

Studies assessing reproductive function among male workers were rare in the United States before the discovery of sterility and infertility in 1977 among employees of a pesticide formulating plant in central California. Subsequently, the etiologic agent, dibromochloropropane (DBCP), has been shown in numerous studies of humans and animals to produce similar effects. While studies on the influence of workplace exposures to various chemicals on reproductive function have proliferated during the past five years, no other single agent has approached the dramatic effects exhibited by DBCP. Other agents that have been evaluated and have shown some adverse effects are reviewed critically. Studies of spontaneous abortion or congenital abnormalities in children of wives of men exposed to anesthetic gases and DBCP indicate that pregnancy outcome, as well as infertility and sterility, is an important outcome measure.