Climate crisis A study relates the loss of fertility to contamination of fossil fuels

The fertility index, the figure that indicates the average of children that gives birth to a woman throughout her life, has been declining throughout the planet.If around the middle of the last century it was located in 4.5 children per woman globally, in 2019 it was lowered to almost half: 2.4 births.And if we look at the most industrialized nations the figure is considerably reduced: 1.18 in Spain last year or 1.7 in Denmark.

It is precisely in this last country where an investigation has been published that links this phenomenon not only with socio -economic causes, but also with exposure to pollutants emitted by fossil fuels.

A fortnight of scientists, mostly based in Danish universities and research centers, has published the Enviromental Factors in Declineing Human Fertility (environmental factors in the decrease in human fertility) in Nature magazine) in Nature.In it they have analyzed data to see if, in addition to economic and behavioral factors, to which the reduction of global birth rate is attributed, biological factors are involved.

Chemical exposure

"We presume that reproductive health problems are partially related to the increase in human exposure to chemical substances that originate directly or indirectly from fossil fuels," the report authors point out.

With figures on the table such as that today, one in ten Danish children occurs with assisted reproduction and that 20% of men do not have children in that country, the collective of researchers suggests that it is a fact that is a fact thatHuman reproductive health is deteriorating in industrialized regions.

"Generalized infertility and the need for assisted reproduction due to the poor quality of semen and/or insufficiency of oocytes are now important health problems," they emphasize.

It also recalls that there are other indicators deterioration of the reproductive health of homo sapiens such as the global increase in the incidence of testicular cancer in young men or the alteration of the frequency of births of twins and multiple births."There is also evidence of a parallel decrease in legal abortions, which reveals a deterioration in total conception rates," they point out.

Already at the beginning of the 20th century

Scientists point out that at the beginning of the 20th century, in the middle of the second industrial revolution and only a few decades after the beginning of the general use of fossil fuels, alterations of fertility rates could already be observed.This process has resulted in most industrialized countries have rates below the levels required not to lose population.In the case of Spain, that figure is far from the 1.18 children per current woman: 2.1 births.

Thus, the group of researchers states: “We hypothesize that the decrease in fertility rates could be linked to exposure to chemical substances that originate from fossil fuels that cause reproduction problems in humans and cancer in the early stages ofLife ”, emphasizing that pregnancy could be" a sensitive period ".

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Thus, there are numerous studies that relate the exposure in some mammals to endocrine disruptors, toxic chemical substance that alter the hormonal systems of the body, with reproductive health via genetic changes.The burning of fossil fuels is the source of some of those endocrine disruptors, as is the case of so -called volatile organic compounds, gaseous hydrocarbons derived from organic solvents, among others.Its health effects are related not only to eye irritation, throat and respiratory system, but with carcinogenic or even psychiatric effects.

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Given the data found, the fortnight of researchers argues that "if the current infertility epidemic is really related to such exhibitions, decisive regulatory actions will be needed backed by interdisciplinary and unconventional research collaborations to reverse trends".

Likewise, they note that there is a challenge in the investigation of this phenomenon, in which it should be deepened with new studies that answer the question of how to distinguish the biological factors of socio -economic and behavior.