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You’ve probably seen a couple of news articles doing the rounds claiming that pollution is shrinking penises and lowering sperm count.

This has a lot to do with Professor Shanna Swan, a US epidemiologist who studies environmental influences on human development, who suggested that sperm counts could reach zero by 2045 and that chemicals can have an effect on the size of one’s member.

Keep in mind that correlation doesn’t equal causation, and while there is a possibility that Swan is right on the money, the cause of rapid sperm count drops in select studies, as well as a decline in the size of penises (also in select studies) aren’t necessarily related.

So, yeah, some studies have found that penis sizes have been on the downward trajectory and sperm count is lower, but it might not be as a result of pollution.

That shouldn’t stop you from throwing your plastic in the recycling bin.

On the other hand, a recent study has found something verifiably pollution-related that is concerning for men, especially older ones, and should be taken very seriously.

Here’s The Guardian.

Scientists found that the men’s cognitive performance fell following rises in air pollution during the month before testing, even when peak levels remained below safety thresholds for toxic air set by the World Health Organization and national regulators.

The WHO guideline level is 10 micrograms of airborne particles per cubic metre.

The findings, published in Nature Aging, build on growing evidence that exposure to air pollution, especially from cars and factories, can be harmful to the heart, lungs, and now cognitive ability.

Researchers in the US and China compiled multiple cognitive test scores from nearly 1,000 men living in the Greater Boston area and checked them against local levels of PM2.5s – airborne particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres across. The men involved in the study were white and had an average age of 69.

The scientists found that higher levels of PM2.5s were linked to below-par cognitive performance in areas such as word memory, number recall, and verbal fluency.

“The findings really stress the impact that air pollution is having on human health,” said Dr Joanne Ryan, head of biological neuropsychiatry and dementia research at Monash University in Melbourne, who was not involved in the latest work. “The importance of this study is that the findings align with a potential causal link of air pollution on brain function and they suggest that it is not just the very high levels of prolonged pollution that are concerning. The study found that even relatively low levels of air pollution can negatively impact cognitive function, and over possibly short periods of time.”

The work confirms that there is a link between air pollution and a decline in cognitive ability.

Electric cars are looking pretty sweet right about now.

[source:guardian]