Association of mixed exposure to microplastics with sperm dysfunction: a multi-site study in China.

Plain-language summary

This study set out to see whether microplastics in the body track with sperm quality. Researchers checked semen and urine from 113 men across three regions of China for eight kinds of microplastic and measured sperm count, concentration and movement. Microplastics turned up in every sample, with most men carrying 3 to 5 kinds. Looking at PTFE on its own, the non-stick pan coating, a relationship was found with lower sperm concentration, 52.13 against 58.32 million per milliliter, and it was a modest one. For total sperm count and for movement, no relationship was found with PTFE, and the movement figures as the paper prints them actually run the opposite way to the sentence introducing them. The stronger result is the count of plastics: each extra kind of microplastic a man carried went with a lower sperm number, a lower concentration and poorer movement, and that relationship held for all three.

Key findings

• Microplastics were in all 113 semen and urine samples, with men typically carrying 3 to 5 kinds.
• For PTFE alone, a relationship was found with lower sperm concentration, 52.13 against 58.32 million per milliliter, and it was modest.
• For PTFE alone, no relationship was found with total sperm count or with movement, and the printed movement figures run opposite to the text describing them.
• Each additional kind of microplastic a man carried went with a lower sperm number, a lower concentration and poorer movement. This was the strongest relationship in the paper and it held for all three measures.