Environmental effects on reproductive health: Introduction

D.H. Barlow

Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Women's Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK


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The following group of ten papers have emerged from presentations made at the international workshop: `Hormones and Endocrine Disrupters in Food and Water: Possible Impact on Human Health' at Copenhagen University Hospital, May 27–30, 2000. This unusual, if not unique, step of including such a group of articles on a single subject within the journal has been taken in consideration of the significant potential for disruption of reproductive health in both males and females arising from substances within the environment, and the urgent need for further research in this area.

Sponsored by the European Commission, The Danish Ministry of Health and the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and others, the meeting reflects the growing governmental concern and financial support for scientific investigations in this area. Following the lead of the US Environmental Protection Agency who identified endocrine disruption as an environmental health issue in 1996, the European Commission, in 1999, adopted a Community Strategy for Endocrine Disruptors, again promoting research on this issue. The clear demonstration of reproductive disruption in wildlife from enviromental pollutants (Guillette et al, 1994; 1999, for example) has increased public awareness and concern and further prompted the need for investigations in the human population.

It is appropriate that this brief series of ten papers, eight with original data, should be introduced by a hypothesis paper by Professor Niels Skakkebaek who both organized the Copenhagen meeting and generated a great deal of interest in this area by his earlier ideas originally presented with Professor Richard Sharpe (Sharpe and Skakkebaek, 1993Go). The opening paper discussing testicular dysgenesis syndrome, a new concept that poor semen quality, testicular cancer, undescended testis and hypospadias have a single origin, is followed by two papers in which animal models investigate such a unifying source—exposure to environmental chemicals in utero, and its effect on male reproduction. A third animal model presents data on the effects of phytoestrogens on the female reproductive tract. The next two papers present epidemiological studies on semen quality in different regions of Europe and on the incidence of testicular and prostate cancer in Denmark. A further human study suggests a possible link between sexual precocity and exposure to dioxin in immigrants to Belgium. Finally three papers focus on the need for accurate assays for oestrogenic potency of a number of chemicals occurring in the environment, particularly in food and water.

It is intended that these papers will provide the readers with some insights, albeit brief and incomplete, into this potentially important area. These papers are also complemented by a series of reviews on the same subject published in the May/June issue of Human Reproduction Update, 2001.


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Guillette, L.J., Gross, T.S., Masson, G.R. et al. (1994) Developmental abnormalities of the gonad and abnormal sex hormone concentrations in juvenile alligators from contaminated and control lakes in Florida. Environ. Health Persp., 102, 680–688.[ISI][Medline]

Guillette, L., Woodward, A., Crain, D. et al. (1999) Plasma steroid concentrations and male phallus size in juvenile alligators from seven Florida Lakes. Gen Comp Endocrinology, 116, 356–372.[ISI][Medline]

Sharpe, R.M. and Skakkebaek, N.E. (1993) Are oestrogens involved in falling sperm counts and disorders of the male reproductive tract ? Lancet, 341; 1392–1395[ISI][Medline]





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