Associations between occupation exposure to Formaldehyde and semen quality, a primary study

Abstract

Formaldehyde (FA), a ubiquitous environmental pollutant, has long been suspected of having male reproductive toxicity. However, FA male reproductive toxicity was inconclusive due to dearth of human studies. Therefore, we sought to investigate whether occupational exposure to FA affects semen quality. Semen quality including five conventional parameters and seven kinematics parameters were compared between 114 male workers occupationally exposed to FA and 76 referents. FA exposure index (FEI) was measured and calculated. Our results showed that sperm progressive motility, total sperm motility, VCL, VSL and VAP were statistically significant decreased in FA exposure workers compared with the referents. Moreover, FEI was significantly negative associated with sperm progressive motility (β = −0.19, P = 0.01) and total sperm motility (β = −0.23, P = 0.004). In addition, a significant elevated risk of abnormal sperm progressive motility were observed in both low- (OR = 2.58; 95% CI: 1.11–5.97) and high-FA-exposed group (OR = 3.41; 95% CI: 1.45–7.92) respectively. Furthermore, a significant increased risk was also estimated for abnormal total sperm motility in both low- (OR = 3.21; 95% CI: 1.24–8.28) and high-FA-exposed group (OR = 4.84; 95% CI: 1.83–12.81) respectively. In conclusion, our study revealed the adverse effects of FA occupation exposure on semen quality, especially on sperm motion parameters.

Regulation of Chromatin Assembly and Cell Transformation by Formaldehyde Exposure in Human Cells

“…Recent studies reported that industrial workers could still be exposed to several parts per million of FA. For instance, FA exposure levels ranged from to in a wood processing factory and from to in a utensil factory ( Wang et al 2015 ; Zhang et al 2010b ). The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified FA as a Group 1 human carcinogen ( IARC 2012 ).…”

Occupational manganese exposure, reproductive hormones, and semen quality in male workers: A cross-sectional study

“…Logarithmic transformation was performed for total sperm count and sperm concentration with nonnormal distribution. Confounding factors for the regression were based on their importance in the literature and biological plausibility (Li et al, 2009; Liu et al, 2012; Wang et al, 2015), which including age, length of service, smoking status, BMI, alcohol intake, duration of abstinence, education, and offspring’s birth weight.…”

Influence of humidity on the initial emittable concentration of formaldehyde and hexaldehyde in building materials: experimental observation and correlation

“…Short-term exposure to formaldehyde and VOCs results in acute diseases, such as irritating responses of eyes, respiratory symptoms, headache, tiredness and asthma symptoms 1 2 3 . Study also revealed the adverse effects of formaldehyde exposure on semen quality 4 . Long-term exposure to these pollutants will even cause cancer 5 .…”

“…Poor indoor air quality caused by formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from building materials may give rise to decreased work efficiency and health-related problems 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 . Short-term exposure to formaldehyde and VOCs results in acute diseases, such as irritating responses of eyes, respiratory symptoms, headache, tiredness and asthma symptoms 1 2 3 .…”