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A 50% drop in sperm counts
As part of a team also featuring Professor Shanna Swan at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York, along with researchers in Denmark, Brazil, Spain, Israel, and the USA, Levine studied sperm count trends in regions that had not been reviewed previously.That same team had already reported in 2017 an alarming decline in sperm counts across the Western world.
In this latest study, they found that average sperm counts all around the world had fallen by over 50 per cent over the past five decades.
Professor Hagai LevineIt looks like a pandemic. It's everywhere. And some of the causes may stay with us for a very long time
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Data from 1973 to 2018 showed sperm counts dropped on average by 1.2 per cent per year. Data from after the year 2000 showed a decline of more than 2.6 per cent per year.
"It’s just unbelievable. I couldn’t believe it myself," Levine told Euronews Next.
The fact that these findings were confirmed across the rest of the world points to a global crisis that could be compared to climate change, according to Levine.
"As in climate change, the impact could be different in different places, but generally the phenomenon is global and should be treated as such," he added.
"It looks like a pandemic. It's everywhere. And some of the causes may stay with us for a very long time".
The tipping point for mankind?
The findings were published on the day the global population passed the 8 billion mark, putting more pressure on the planet’s limited natural resources."Philosophically, maybe the decline in sperm count and infertility is somehow the way of the world to balance what's going on," Levine told Euronews Next.
"But, you know, that's just a thought. It's not a scientific thought".
He said the findings should be of concern to everyone - regardless of their opinions on how many human beings the planet needs right now.
"Sperm count is a very good measure of global health and of our future. And regardless of the number of people you think we need on Earth, you don’t want it to be determined by hazardous events rather than our own choices," Levine said.
"I think we have to monitor it very carefully at the global level, at the population level, at the local country level, and also the personal level," he added, calling on authorities to improve lifestyles and limit human exposure to manmade chemicals through better regulation.
"Sometimes there is a tipping point and the system collapses at once. It means something is happening with our ecological systems, our reproductive systems - and at some point, it’s just too much".
Sperm counts worldwide are falling even faster than we thought
Researchers warn of a global fertility crisis that "looks like a pandemic” as sperm counts drop sharply around the world.
www.euronews.com