Lead Poisoning and Fecundity in Men

Abstract

Although a standard textbook of medicine devotes extensive descriptions of the effects of lead poisoning on the gut, the nervous system, the brain, the blood, the gingival lead line, and other symptoms, no mention is made of effects on the male gonads. In the current issue of the Archives of Environmental Health (30:396, 1975) is a report from Switzerland by Lancranjan et al that indicates serious gonadal impairment in men exposed to lead in a storage battery factory. The effects were shown to be direct in that tests for a hypothalamopituitary influence were negative. The authors studied 150 workmen who had had longterm exposure to lead in varying degrees. Clinical and toxicological criteria were used to categorize the men into four groups: lead-poisoned workmen, and those showing moderate, slight, and physiologic absorption of lead. Semen analysis demonstrated hypofertility in lead-poisoned workers as well as in those who had a moderately