{"id":40351,"date":"2025-11-25T00:01:58","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T05:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=40351"},"modified":"2025-11-25T09:33:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T14:33:50","slug":"report-links-prostate-cancer-crashing-sperm-count-to-pesticides-medical-author-to-speak-at-dec-4-webinar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2025\/11\/report-links-prostate-cancer-crashing-sperm-count-to-pesticides-medical-author-to-speak-at-dec-4-webinar\/","title":{"rendered":"Report Links Prostate Cancer, Crashing Sperm Count to Pesticides; Medical Author To Speak at Dec. 4 Webinar"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, November 25, 2025) Chemical pollution is having a profound impact on men\u2019s overall health and reproductive function. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals\u2014which prominently include pesticides\u2014are a major factor. The Health and Environment Alliance<\/a> (HEAL) a European organization funded by the European Union (EU) and several private foundations, has issued a strong call for attention to \u2013 and action on \u2013 the precipitous decline in male reproductive health owing to chemical exposures, including pesticides. In a new report<\/a>, Chemical pollution and men\u2019s health: A hidden crisis in Europe<\/em>, the group states, \u201cThe scientific evidence is clear. The costs of chemical pollution \u2013 human and economic \u2013 are mounting. The solutions exist. What we need now is the political will to act.\u201d The report was written by Rosaella Cannarella, M.D., PhD, an endocrinologist at the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolic Diseases and Nutrition, University of Catania (Italy).<\/p>\r\n

HEAL\u2019s report details alarming indications of catastrophe in male reproductive health: prostate cancer, testicular cancer, crashing sperm counts, and numerous developmental problems including cryptorchidism<\/a>, urogenital malformations<\/a>, and hypospadias<\/a>. The report highlights pesticides, microplastics, phthalates, bisphenols, PFAS and heavy metals as the likely environmental sources of the crisis. There is evidence that all of these endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) adversely affect male reproductive function.<\/p>\r\n

There are 330,000 cases of prostate cancer in the EU. It is the third most-diagnosed cancer in men. Beyond Pesticides has documented research showing that pesticides have been linked to higher risk of prostate cancer<\/a>, including, specifically, pyrethroid insecticides<\/a>. See also Beyond Pesticides\u2019 analysis of the positive association between exposure to 22 pesticides and prostate cancer occurrence and as a cause of death<\/a>. In the EU, testicular cancer has jumped 25% since 2014, and is now the most common cancer in men 15 to 44, according to the HEAL report. Sperm counts declined by more than 50% between 1973 and 2018<\/a>. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the U.S.<\/a>, with an estimated 34,780 new cases<\/a> in 2025, one in eight men will get the disease, which has been increasing at a rate of 3.0% a year.<\/p>\r\n

Chemical exposures to both parents can harm male offspring\u2019s reproductive health. The HEAL report cites EU research that has found strong connections between maternal exposure during pregnancy to phthalates, BPA and pesticides and cryptorchidism, urogenital malformations, hypospadias and testicular cancer in their sons. Paternal exposure to EDCs, such as many pesticides, can have transgenerational effects. Both EDCs and microplastics can cause epigenetic changes in sperm and in genes crucial to development, thus potentially affecting ensuing generations\u2019 reproductive health. These changes mean that the reproductive capacity of offspring can already be impaired even before conception has occurred.<\/p>\r\n

The weed killer glyphosate is a prominent example of an endocrine disrupting pesticide. A recent study<\/a> of glyphosate exposure in zebrafish by Italian researchers finds that at the acceptable daily intake level, glyphosate \u201cimpaired germ cell<\/a> differentiation and triggered cell-specific changes in histone acetylation within the male germline.\u201d Histone acetylation is an epigenetic process that regulates the activation and deactivation of genes, in this case those involving male reproductive structures and processes. At the higher \u201cno observed adverse effect level,\u201d glyphosate \u201cinduced metabolomic and proteomic disruptions linked to impaired steroidogenesis<\/a>, DNA damage in germ cells, and alterations in testicular architecture, culminating in reduced reproductive capacity.\u201d These differing effects at different doses suggest that glyphosate has a non-monotonic dose-response curve<\/a>, contradicting the toxicological dogma that the \u201cdose makes the poison.\u201d Further, it suggests that these so-called protective exposure measures are nothing of the kind.<\/p>\r\n

Microplastics are emerging as a potentially severe and intractable contributor to male reproductive dysfunction. A literature review of over 90 scientific articles in\u00a0Agriculture<\/em><\/a>\u00a0documents microplastics\u2019 (MPs) increase the bioavailability, persistence, and toxicity of pesticides<\/a> used in agriculture. According to the HEAL report, studies in Europe, the U.S. and China have found microplastics in 100% of human testicular tissue sampled. They may interfere with sperm formation, disrupt testosterone production, and trigger inflammation in reproductive organs. Microplastics have been found in the olfactory bulb in the brain and there is evidence that they can also reach the brain across the blood-brain barrier.<\/p>\r\n

Both pesticides and microplastics have profound effects on the brain, which is inextricably involved with reproductive development and function. The gut-brain axis is involved in testosterone synthesis and circulation<\/a>, and microplastics may affect it through interactions with gut microbes<\/a>. Glyphosate and organophosphates disrupt another important system, the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis (HPG) in animals, according to the HEAL report. Two of these three hormonal axis elements are in the brain. The HPG axis affects testosterone synthesis, the development of testes, and behavior after sexual maturation<\/a>. There is also a great deal of interaction between microplastics and pesticides, as detailed in Beyond Pesticides\u2019 March 22, 2024<\/a> news brief, illustrating the kinds of overlap that can occur among the chemicals the HEAL report considers. These interactions in the brain and throughout the endocrine system need further research.<\/p>\r\n

The HEAL report also demonstrates the deleterious effects on male reproductive health of other environmental toxicants. Prenatal exposure to phthalates is associated with \u201creduced semen quality, DNA fragmentation, and lower testosterone levels,\u201d the HEAL authors state. Similarly, the report cites research showing that some EU countries had detectable bisphenol A (BPA) in 100% of study participants, and many exceeded the EU\u2019s acceptable daily intake. BPA is linked to reduced sperm concentration, altered motility and morphology along with altered testosterone levels. A biomonitoring study in the Flemish region of Belgium found PFAS <\/a>in upwards of 95% of the population. PFAS exposure is associated with delayed puberty, poor sperm quality and low testosterone in young men. The heavy metals lead, cadmium and mercury are associated with sperm abnormalities including poor motility and morphology<\/a>. Lead exposure altered sperm epigenetics in battery and recycling workers. Mercury is an endocrine disruptor and impairs fertility.<\/p>\r\n

Thus, the HEAL report brings together the cumulative impact of all these chemical depredations on male reproductive health, demonstrating the simultaneous and interactive consequences of exposure to the suite of insults everyone is now trying to cope with.<\/p>\r\n

The HEAL report also elucidates the varying costs of male reproductive disorders\u2013direct medical costs, indirect costs of lost productivity and disability, and intangible costs of emotional distress and stigma. The direct costs alone are massive: Treating prostate cancer costs 9 billion Euros ($10.4 billion) annually; male infertility affects a twelfth of European couples and costs 3-4.5 billion Euros ($3.5-$5 billion) a year. A 2015 analysis cited in the report estimated the costs of EDC-related male reproductive health disorders at 15 billion Euros ($17 billion) annually, a figure that is surely much higher now.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThe mounting evidence linking chemical exposure to serious men\u2019s health outcomes\u2014infertility, cancer, hormonal disorders\u2014demands an urgent policy response. While Europe has made important progress in identifying and regulating hazardous substances, human biomonitoring data and public health trends indicate that the current regulatory mechanisms remain insufficient to protect male reproductive health,\u201d the HEAL report states. This position reflects HEAL\u2019s intent to press the European Commission (EC) just as it prepares to adopt a revision of its landmark 2007 Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) legislation. The EC has stated an intent to release the revision by the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, but the revision has dropped from the Commission\u2019s final agenda for the year<\/a> and it appears its current text is not publicly available. According to wca-environment.com<\/a>, a chemical industry consultancy, the revision will add increasingly stringent criteria for persistent, mobile and toxic chemicals along with an EDC assessment and a mixture assessment factor to the REACH chemical safety assessment. The new REACH will reportedly<\/a> also introduce a definition of, and compliance guidelines for, nanomaterials.<\/p>\r\n

HEAL is advocating for more focused health measures, including:<\/p>\r\n