Chemicals in the environment that disrupt the bodys normal functions - Essay Example

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Pollutants include chemicals, biological materials, as also various physical agents (e.g. noise, radiation, heat). Most pollutants are of human origin, resulting from human activities such as industry, energy production and use, transport, urbanization, waste disposal, agricultural practices etc. The rapid expansion of the chemical industry that has occurred during the last 50 years has created numerous xenobiotics (molecules foreign to biological systems) capable of causing chemical toxicity leading to morbidity and mortality. New information on potential environmental risks from widely used chemicals is continuously emerging. Some of the major causes of mortality from diseases linked to environmental pollution have been listed as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, acute respiratory diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and diarrhoeal diseases (Murray and Lopez, 1997). The reproductive system is an important target of several environmental chemicals. Hence, the environmental pollutants are currently under intense scrutiny especially regarding their possible adverse actions on human infertility.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of couples experiencing reproductive difficulties has gone up from 4.9 million in 1988 to 6.1 million in 1995, and 7.3 million in 2002 (Luoma, 2005) (Fig. 1). The apparent or proximate causes of female infertility are numerous and involve impaired sperm quality or reproductive tract abnormalities, fallopian tube obstruction, hormone/menstrual cycle irregularities and anovulation, to implantation difficulties and recurrent miscarriage. In the male, the dominant causes of infertility and sub fertility are reduced sperm count and quality, reduced motility and/or abnormal morphology of sperm, and sperm DNA damage (Luoma, 2005; Bretveld et al., 2006). Multiple factors, including age, heredity, lifestyle, ...Download file to see next pagesRead More