Prior studies have observed impacts of air pollution on semen quality, but timing of exposure during developmental windows of spermatogenesis and impacts of low-to-moderate air pollution is less well understood. We examined the relation between air pollution and semen quality in the Folic Acid and Zinc Supplementation Trial (2013-2018), which enrolled male partners of couples seeking infertility treatment in the Salt Lake City, Utah region (n = 2015). Semen quality parameters were assessed at baseline, 2-, 4-, and 6-months follow-up. Measures of daily air pollutants at each participant's residence were abstracted from Community Multiscale Air Quality models (fine particulate matter: PM2.5, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone: O3), linked to participants' residential addresses, and averaged across the 74-day spermatogenesis window prior to the sample collection date for each study visit, and across four developmental windows of spermatogenesis (mitosis, meiosis I-II, spermiogenesis, and spermiation). Generalized linear mixed models considered four repeated semen sample measures per participant and adjusted for co-pollutants, age, season, and income. In multi-pollutant models, O3 during early-to-mid spermatogenesis (meiosis I+II and spermiogenesis) was related to lower percent normal morphology (% difference -6.73, 95 % CI -9.82, -3.54 and % difference -3.83, 95 % CI -7.51, 0.00, respectively). Additionally, PM2.5 and O3 during late spermatogenesis (spermiation) were associated with lower count and concentration, and PM2.5 with lower progressive motility. These findings suggest that exposure to low-to-moderate levels of air pollution may negatively impact semen quality and indicate that exposure to O3 during meiosis and spermiogenesis may particularly affect normal sperm morphological development.
Ecotoxicology and environmental safety. 2025 Aug 30 [Epub ahead of print]
Lindsey M Russo, J Richard Pilsner, Timothy P Canty, Neil J Perkins, Pauline Mendola, Karen Schliep, May Shaaban, Rachael B Hemmert, Akanksha Singh, Allison M Ring, C Matthew Peterson, Kaniz Rabeya, Enrique F Schisterman, Sunni L Mumford, Carrie Nobles
Division of General Internal Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, 420 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021, USA., Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI 48201, USA., Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA., Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Branch, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA., Epidemiology and Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA., Division of Public Health, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake, UT, USA., Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Utah Health, Salt Lake, UT, USA., Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA., Departments of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics and Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA., Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA. Electronic address: .