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Air Pollution Causes Sperm Mutations In Mice

Reservoir Hill writes "Epidemiological studies in humans have suggested a link between air pollution and reduced male fertility, but such studies are often confounded by other lifestyle differences such as diet, genetic background, and economic class. Now a study of mice, reared in cages kept in a shed downwind of two steel mills and a busy highway in a Canadian city, showed a host of genetic changes compared to similarly housed mice breathing filtered air. DNA in the sperm of the mice in the polluted area contained 60% more mutations, had more strand breaks, and had more bases that had been chemically modified via the addition of a methyl group. Precisely how the pollution caused the DNA damage remains unclear but changes may be a more general response to particulate pollution. 'It's important to move this forward to the next step: determining whether there are any human corollaries to this,' says Jonathan Samet, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University."

6 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Mutations by Seumas · · Score: 2, Funny

    The sperm mutations aren't only in *mice*.

    And no, I don't want to talk about it.

  2. The REAL question is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    How does the sperm get INTO the mice? I mean, science for science's sake, but wtf.. that's sick!

  3. I will gladly volenteer by Smordnys+s'regrepsA · · Score: 2, Funny

    Where do I sign up for the human studies? Can I choose to be housed in the filtered air cabin?

    Not that I would be adverse to living in a smoggy hell-hole - so long as they pay for room & board and "collect" my sperm on a regular basis.

    --
    Just -1, Troll talking to another.
    1. Re:I will gladly volenteer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Collection is not necessarily too pleasant.

  4. Remember kids by GroeFaZ · · Score: 1, Funny

    It isn't pollution that's harming sperm. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it!

    --
    The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
  5. Re:Uh... Dumb question BUT... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Mouseturbation.