Wine, Pesticides, and Low Sperm Count

It's not a matter cutting back on wine for fear it is the culprit behind low sperm counts in French men. Rather, scientists, as reported in The Drinks Business, believe that the reason sperm counts have dropped by almost a third between 1989 to 2005 might be due to vineyard workers who are exposed to pesticides.

With the steepest drops in sperm count located in two top wine-producing regions of France, a researcher at the institute where the study was conducted, Institut de Veille Sanitaire, suggested, ”Wine cultivation is the activity that uses the most pesticides in proportion to the agricultural area." Dr. Joëlle Le Moal continued, "In these two regions there could be a local contributor due to the pesticides they use in wine cultivation, because this kind of production uses so much.”

The Drinks Business, however, counters that men in Burgundy and the Loire Valley did not see a similar drop in sperm counts.