Pollution can have a drastic impact on fertiilty. At least that’s the conclusion that many are coming to on the small island village of Bahraini, located in the Persian Gulf.
During the prior 20 years, their surrounding environment has been the target of major changest, triggered, in large part, by the Gulf War in the early nineties.
Directly due to the Gulf War, the sea and land surrounding the area were badly contaminated. First, the military forces of Iraq, stationed in Kuwait opened the valves at the Sea Island oil terminal near Kuwait City and released large quantities of crude oil into the Gulf, polluting the waters. In addition, the many uranium-enriched bombs dropped by U.S. contaminated both the surrounding waters and land.
Today, almost 20 years later, it appears that Bahraini men in their early twenties, and attempting to start families are, all of a sudden, experiencing conception problems.
And now, Dr. Isa Amin, a Bahraini urologist, has come forward with data showing that the number of his male patients who are experiencing infertility has risen drastically. From the average of two cases per month a decade ago, he is now seeing an average of 11 patients per month with fertility problems.
While it’s certainly true that some of the occurrences could be caused by common culprits such as heredity, drugs, or accidents - with such a major change in the environment, it’s not a huge leap to suspect it of being the main culprit.
Dr. Amin first begin to suspect scale of the problem when he noticed an abnormally large number of his male patients with zero semen. It’s now recognized in the scientific community that exposure to certain chemicals that are present in the home, diet, and general environment can affect fertility.
Unfortunately, the people in this small area don’t have many real options. It’s extremely difficult to purify Uranium contaminated water on this scale. And even though, based on his patient’s results, Dr. Amin is calling for more research into the effects of environmental pollution on fertility rates in his community, it’s unlikely that enough could be done to affect the welfare of the patients currently under his care.
Richard Corcoran is senior writer for the best ivf message boards . Visit his site for in depth articles on acupuncture and infertility, and cost of ivf, and other fertility issues.
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