§ Dr. GibsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on recent research from the Aberdeen Fertility Centre on sperm counts since 1989; what assessment he has made of links between harmful man-made chemicals in the environment and reduced sperm counts; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals. [147231]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe research from the Aberdeen Fertility Centre has not been peer-reviewed or published, and has not been assessed by the Department. The Global assessment of the state-of-the-science of endocrine disrupters, by the World Health Organization (WHO) International Programme on Chemical Safety concluded in August 2002 that,
although an extensive review of the published data suggest that there could be temporal and geographical variation in human sperm production, it is not possible to conclude that the phenomenon is real and, if so, to what extent reductions in sperm count may affect fertility. The data should he interpreted with caution.The WHO assessment also concluded that,Analysis of the human data by itself, while generating concerns, has so far failed to provide firm evidence of direct causal associations between low-level (i.e., levels measured in the general population) exposure to chemicals and adverse health outcomes".The Government research programme on trends in male reproductive health and the possible influences of occupational or environmental (or other) exposure to chemicals includes two studies on sperm counts. One is a study of Scottish male reproductive health (Medical Research Council Reproductive Biology Unit, Edinburgh). The other (which is co-funded with the European Chemical Industries Council) is a United Kingdom multi-centre study of occupational and environmental exposure to chemicals and male fertility (Universities of Manchester and Sheffield). The results will be published in due course.
The Government's chemical strategy was published in December 1999 and is available at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/chemicals/ukstrategy.htm. Its main goals are to: phase out chemicals posing an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment as soon as possible; reduce as far as possible the risks posed by chemicals that are essential in our everyday lives, thus finding a balance between protecting health and the environment and retaining the socio-economic benefits that many chemicals provide; and make full information publicly available about the environmental and health risks of chemicals.