Semen Quality And Sperm DNA Damage In Relation To The Pesticide Exposure In Farmers Of The Area Of Cropping Cotton

There is a significant public health concern about the potential effects of occupational exposure to agrochemical insecticides on reproduction. Several studies have shown that in some parts of the world, average sperm counts have dropped by 50% since the 1940s. Occupational exposure and environmental exposure to insecticide have been conjectured as one of the aetiologies of sperm number decline and spermatozoa DNA damage. In the area of planting cotton in Hebei province, the cotton farmers have a higher exposure risk and are more prone to the damage made by pesticides than the farmers of planting others. There have been 120 million farmers of cropping cotton in China, with 26 million people in Hebei Province.There are average 4-month-round activity of spraying pesticide every year with 6~25 hours a month in Hebei province. These farmers have constant exposure to a variety of pesticides such as pyrethroids, organophosphorus compounds and so on. However, there have been few reports of spermatozoa DNA damage in these spraying farmers exposed to pesticides in China.Aims: To detect semen quality and spermatozoa nuclear DNA injury in four different period of spraying insecticide. and to determine the trend of semen quality and spermatozoa DNA damage during the period of spraying pesticide and relation with exposure level.Methods: Semen parameters include concentration, volume, vitality and so on, was measured by WHO standard , and spermatozoa DNA fragmentation was detected by a modified alkaline single cell gel electrophoresis (Comet) assay. Tail moment, Comet moment, Tail inertia and olive tail moment (OTM) were measured, all semen samples were collected four times in different sprayed insedticide period. The resulting data were analysed by Repeated Measures analysisi of variance.Results: As for time course, in the four-time sprayed insecticide period, semen...