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As the experts do not confirm but wonder if the wine industry was to blame, a new study following the initial 2012 studies, done on 26,000 men and released last week, shows that men in the wine-producing regions of Burgundy and Loire Valley do not show as significant a drop in sperm count as those in Aquitaine and the Midi-Pyrénées in south-western France, the two centers for French wine production, notably the famous Bordeaux labels, according to a report in French news website in English the Local.
The French researchers doing the study say those two regions are home to some of the country's largest number of farm workers, many of whom are likely to be exposed to pesticides - which they feel are the chief culprit for the decline in sperm quality. The chemicals can disrupt the male hormones and interrupt sperm production.
Dr. Joëlle Le Moal from the Institut de Veille Sanitaire (Sanitary Surveillance Institute), who helped to carry out the research says, ‘Wine cultivation is the activity that uses the most pesticides in proportion to the agricultural area. In these two regions there could be a local contributor due to the pesticides they use in wine cultivation, because this kind of production uses so much," Dr. Moal says reportedly.
In addition to a decrease in sperm count, from the late 1980s to the mid-2000s men in Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrénées also had a lower than average number of properly shaped sperm cells. Over the same period regions like Franche-Comté and Brittany actually saw an increase.
In spite of the lowered sperm counts, researchers say men in those two regions did not seem to have any apparent health problems. Rates of obesity and alcohol and tobacco consumption were similar to those of men in neighboring regions, making researchers suggest it might have something to do with the wine production.
The study ought to make the Indian producers take note and alert them to this distinct possibility since pesticides are used in the vineyards even where eating grapes are grown. The use of pesticides in other farm operations would also be as harmful.
Tags: Aquitaine, Midi-Pyrénées, France, Dr. Joëlle Le Moal |