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Following on the report this weekend citing the Independent of London
regarding decreasing sperm counts and industrial pollution:
20 III 02
From a conversation with Prof. Katherine Hammond, Professor of
Environmental Health Sciences UC Berkeley: the problem with the report in
the London Independent is that the data on sperm counts over several
decades taken by different individuals, with different methods, using
different counting protocols, on different populations, leave it unclear
that the effect reported, diminishing sperm counts, is at all conclusively
established.
The teaching point is that great care must be exercised in the design
of such studies rather than just taking data collected for a variety of
purposes at face value.
Prof. Hammond says that the definitive study is yet to be done.
Increasing levels of trace industrial chemicals and drug residues in
the nation's water supplies as reported in the Washington Post 13 March
2002 and scheduled for publication that day in Environmental Science and
Technology, do seem to be well-established, however.
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** John N. Cooper **
** Chemistry Department **
** Bucknell University **
** Lewisburg PA 17837 **
** jcooper@bucknell.edu **
** http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/jcooper **
** Vox 570 577 3673 Fax 570 577 1739 **
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