Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Occupational and Environmental Medicine logoLink to Occupational and Environmental Medicine
. 1998 Apr;55(4):278–283. doi: 10.1136/oem.55.4.278

Time to pregnancy and exposure to pesticides in Danish farmers. ASCLEPIOS Study Group

S B Larsen, M Joffe, J P Bonde
PMCID: PMC1757574  PMID: 9624283

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Circumstantial evidence suggests that organic farmers may have higher sperm count than other men, but comprehensive epidemiological studies of male fecundity among farmers have never been carried out. A substantial increase of sperm count is expected to translate into a shorter time to pregnancy--the number of menstrual cycles or months it takes a couple to get pregnant from discontinuation of birth control. Toxicological effects on spermatogenesis in humans and animals have been described after exposure to several pesticides. The aim of this study was to examine time to pregnancy among farmers who used pesticides (traditional farmers) and farmers who did not (organic farmers). METHODS: A total of 904 (84%) men, selected from the Danish Ministry of Agriculture lists of traditional and organic farmers, participated in telephone interviews. Information was collected on time to pregnancy for the youngest child, exposure to pesticides, and potential confounders. RESULTS: With the discrete analogue of the Cox regression model (including potential confounders: male and female smoking, female age, parity, and contraceptive method), the fecundability ratio between traditional farmers who used pesticides and organic farmers was 1.03 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.75 to 1.40). In the group of farmers who sprayed with pesticides, none of the characteristics related to the use of pesticides could account for the variation in time to pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS: No overall effect of pesticides on male fecundability was found in this retrospective study among Danish farmers. Also, we found no evidence of higher male fecundability in organic farmers.

 

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (119.9 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Abell A., Ernst E., Bonde J. P. High sperm density among members of organic farmers' association. Lancet. 1994 Jun 11;343(8911):1498–1498. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(94)92605-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Baird D. D., Weinberg C. R., Rowland A. S. Reporting errors in time-to-pregnancy data collected with a short questionnaire. Impact on power and estimation of fecundability ratios. Am J Epidemiol. 1991 Jun 15;133(12):1282–1290. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a115840. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Baird D. D., Weinberg C. R., Schwingl P., Wilcox A. J. Selection bias associated with contraceptive practice in time-to-pregnancy studies. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1994 Feb 18;709:156–164. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1994.tb30395.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Baird D. D., Wilcox A. J., Weinberg C. R. Use of time to pregnancy to study environmental exposures. Am J Epidemiol. 1986 Sep;124(3):470–480. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a114417. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Behera B. C., Bhunya S. P. Genotoxic effect of isoproturon (herbicide) as revealed by three mammalian in vivo mutagenic bioassays. Indian J Exp Biol. 1990 Sep;28(9):862–867. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Cohn W. J., Boylan J. J., Blanke R. V., Fariss M. W., Howell J. R., Guzelian P. S. Treatment of chlordecone (Kepone) toxicity with cholestyramine. Results of a controlled clinical trial. N Engl J Med. 1978 Feb 2;298(5):243–248. doi: 10.1056/NEJM197802022980504. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Jensen T. K., Giwercman A., Carlsen E., Scheike T., Skakkebaek N. E. Semen quality among members of organic food associations in Zealand, Denmark. Lancet. 1996 Jun 29;347(9018):1844–1844. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(96)91669-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Joffe M. Feasibility of studying subfertility using retrospective self reports. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1989 Sep;43(3):268–274. doi: 10.1136/jech.43.3.268. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Joffe M., Villard L., Li Z., Plowman R., Vessey M. A time to pregnancy questionnaire designed for long term recall: validity in Oxford, England. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1995 Jun;49(3):314–319. doi: 10.1136/jech.49.3.314. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Joffe M., Villard L., Li Z., Plowman R., Vessey M. Long-term recall of time-to-pregnancy. Fertil Steril. 1993 Jul;60(1):99–104. doi: 10.1016/s0015-0282(16)56044-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Lerda D., Rizzi R. Study of reproductive function in persons occupationally exposed to 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Mutat Res. 1991 Jan;262(1):47–50. doi: 10.1016/0165-7992(91)90105-d. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Linder R. E., Scotti T. M., Svendsgaard D. J., McElroy W. K., Curley A. Testicular effects of dinoseb in rats. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol. 1982;11(4):475–485. doi: 10.1007/BF01056075. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Murnik M. R., Nash C. L. Mutagenicity of the triazine herbicides atrazine, cyanazine, and simazine in Drosophila melanogaster. J Toxicol Environ Health. 1977 Nov;3(4):691–697. doi: 10.1080/15287397709529603. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Pati P. C., Bhunya S. P. Cytogenetic effects of fenvalerate in mammalian in vivo test system. Mutat Res. 1989 Mar;222(3):149–154. doi: 10.1016/0165-1218(89)90130-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Ratcliffe J. M., Schrader S. M., Steenland K., Clapp D. E., Turner T., Hornung R. W. Semen quality in papaya workers with long term exposure to ethylene dibromide. Br J Ind Med. 1987 May;44(5):317–326. doi: 10.1136/oem.44.5.317. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Rowland A. S., Baird D. D., Weinberg C. R., Shore D. L., Shy C. M., Wilcox A. J. Reduced fertility among women employed as dental assistants exposed to high levels of nitrous oxide. N Engl J Med. 1992 Oct 1;327(14):993–997. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199210013271405. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Salem M. H., Abo-Elezz Z., Abd-Allah G. A., Hassan G. A., Shaker N. Effect of organophosphorus (dimethoate) and pyrethroid (deltamethrin) pesticides on semen characteristics in rabbits. J Environ Sci Health B. 1988 Jun;23(3):279–290. doi: 10.1080/03601238809372604. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Van Hemmen J. J. Predictive exposure modelling for pesticide registration purposes. Ann Occup Hyg. 1993 Oct;37(5):541–564. doi: 10.1093/annhyg/37.5.541. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Weinberg C. R., Baird D. D., Wilcox A. J. Sources of bias in studies of time to pregnancy. 1994 Mar 15-Apr 15Stat Med. 13(5-7):671–681. doi: 10.1002/sim.4780130528. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Whorton D., Krauss R. M., Marshall S., Milby T. H. Infertility in male pesticide workers. Lancet. 1977 Dec 17;2(8051):1259–1261. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(77)92665-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Whorton D., Milby T. H., Krauss R. M., Stubbs H. A. Testicular function in DBCP exposed pesticide workers. J Occup Med. 1979 Mar;21(3):161–166. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Wyrobek A. J., Watchmaker G., Gordon L., Wong K., Moore D., 2nd, Whorton D. Sperm shape abnormalities in carbaryl-exposed employees. Environ Health Perspect. 1981 Aug;40:255–265. doi: 10.1289/ehp.8140255. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Yousef M. I., Salem M. H., Ibrahim H. Z., Helmi S., Seehy M. A., Bertheussen K. Toxic effects of carbofuran and glyphosate on semen characteristics in rabbits. J Environ Sci Health B. 1995 Jul;30(4):513–534. doi: 10.1080/03601239509372951. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Zielhuis G. A., Hulscher M. E., Florack E. I. Validity and reliability of a questionnaire on fecundability. Int J Epidemiol. 1992 Dec;21(6):1151–1156. doi: 10.1093/ije/21.6.1151. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. de Cock J., Westveer K., Heederik D., te Velde E., van Kooij R. Time to pregnancy and occupational exposure to pesticides in fruit growers in The Netherlands. Occup Environ Med. 1994 Oct;51(10):693–699. doi: 10.1136/oem.51.10.693. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Occupational and Environmental Medicine are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES