Is the wine industry killing off French sperm?

(TheLocal) - The quality of French sperm is on the decline. But a new study released this week has raised the question of whether the one-third drop in French men's sperm count in recent years is linked to the production of the country's most famous export: wine.

The quality of French sperm is on the decline. But a new study released this week has raised the question of whether the one-third drop in French men's sperm count in recent years is linked to the production of the country's most famous export: wine.

In a follow up to a groundbreaking 2012 study that revealed French men's sperm count plummeted by about one-third from 1989 to 2005, the researchers' latest investigation has raised the question of whether France's wine industry may be partly to blame.

The new study, which involved 26,600 men, shows how the decline in sperm quality has been more acute in certain regions of France.

The two areas which have seen the steepest drops were found to be the regions of Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrénées in south-western France, which also happen to be two centres for French wine production, notably the famous Bordeaux labels. (See map below)

The French researchers behind the study say those two regions are home to some of country's largest number of farm workers, many of whom are likely to be exposed to pesticides - which researchers say are the chief culprit for the decline in sperm quality. The chemicals can disrupt the men's hormones and thus interrupt sperm production, the study found.

"Wine cultivation is the activity that uses the most pesticides in proportion to the agricultural area," Institut de Veille Sanitaire researcher Dr. Joëlle Le Moal, who helped carry out the study, said.

"In these two regions there could be a local contributor due to the pesticides they use in wine cultivation, becasue this kind of production uses so much," Le Moal told The Local.

As part of the follow-up study that was published this week they took a look at how the decline varied across France and spotted the sharp drop off in south-western France.

In addition to a decrease in sperm count, from the late 1980s to the mid-2000s men in Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrénées also had a lower than average number of properly shaped sperm cells. Over the same period regions like Franche-Comté and Brittany actually saw an increase.