Male-mediated spontaneous abortion among spouses of stainless steel welders

Male Infertility; Evidences, Risk Factors, Causes, Diagnosis and Management in Human

“…Heavy metals including lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg) could adversely affect the male reproductive system, either by causing hypothalamic c-pituitary axis disruption or by directly affecting spermatogenesis, resulting in impair semen quality. A tendency towards reduced semen quality has been recorded in men exposed to heavy metals [70][71][72]. Sallmen et al [73] found that lead exposure induce childless rather than delayed pregnancy.…”

Spontaneous abortions in female populations occupationally exposed to ionizing radiation

“…A signiWcantly reduced number of viable fetuses implantation sites has been reported in mice exposed to hexavalent chromium (Elbetieha and Al-Hamood 1997). The increased incidence of SA observed following paternal exposure to chromium in a population of steel welders suggests the possibility that even non-radioactive isotopes of chromium have mutagenic and teratogenic potential (Hjollund et al 2000). Tritium freely cross the placenta and is distributed approximately uniformly in maternal and in fetal tissue (Von Zallinger and Tempel 1998).…”

Chromium

“…The adjusted relative risk for spontaneous abortion for pregnancies associated with exposure to paternal stainless-steel welding was 3.5 (Hjollund et al 2000) Various agencies have investigated substances that may be present in the environment and cause adverse effects on the environment or on human health (IPCS 1988;O'Flaherty 1994; Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry 1998). Chromium was one of four metals include on the priority list for the Canadian Environmental Protection Act .…”