Can passive smoking make you infertile?

Shenade Annie Kerketta, Amity University Kolkata

Today, smoking is one of the major global health problems. The tobacco industry contributes largely to the world economy. India is on the list of one of the major producers of tobacco. More than 1.1 billion people globally smoke cigarettes. It has been found that men (35%globally) smoke more than women (6%globally). All this directs to the point that not much is being done to solve this GLOBAL HEALTH PROBLEM. There are hundreds of side effects to active smoking and the majority of the population is aware of these threats. One of the most discussed threats is infertility caused due to active smoking. We believe that infertility, among men, is caused majorly due to active smoking but the recent experiments state otherwise.

The Recent 2020 study:

 Amal Dhair and Yehia Abed in 2020 studied the relationship between smoking and the infertility it causes. They even studied how much smoking every day can cause primary infertility. Primary infertility is caused when an individual cannot bear an offspring for more than one year of unprotected intercourse. It is found that the middle eastern and Asian countries smoke the most. So, this study was carried out in Palestine (Gaza Strip). In this experiment, 160 infertile couples were selected from various infertility clinics. 160 fertile couples were selected from government health care centers providing postnatal care and family planning services. These fertile couples were selected to work as the control in the experiment. A couple or an individual is deemed fertile when they have been able to bear a healthy offspring at least twice. Also, the normal pregnancies must be without any assistance like in vitro techniques or so.

The researchers implemented a self-constructed questionnaire for the 320 couples. The questionnaire included parameters like age, marital duration, education level, monthly income, smoking status, and type of smoker(former/active/ passive). It also included smoking intensity and duration. All this data was statistically analyzed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 24 package. This IBM SPSS Statistics 24 package is a program used to portray the input data statistically. All this data was used to show two facts:

• The dangers of smoking across the different causes of infertility through Fisher exact test.
• The dangers of smoking across different genitourinary conditions through Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test.

Semen samples were also taken by experienced professionals to ease out the process.

Results and discussion:

This experiment was performed to study the harmful effects of smoking regarding infertility in men. The results of this experiment showcased parameters of sperm count, motility, semen pH, and hormonal factors. It was found that men who are into passive smoking, smoking for more than two years run 3.5 times the risk of infertility. Also, men who used to smoke but have stopped smoking run nine times the risk of infertility.

Passive smoking is when a person inhales the smoke coming out of the burning end of a cigarette. 90% of the smoke surrounding the smoker is this passive smoke. Passive smoke is more harmful as it contains large amounts of toxic substances.

 The toxic substances include:

• Superoxide
• Hydrogen peroxide

Both these substances are harmful and affect sperm motility and sperm chromatin integrity. Hence inducing infertility and genitourinary conditions in men. It was also found that smoking affects sperm count and morphology. It does not affect the semen pH and reproductive hormones. Another study (Ramlau-Hansen et al.)stated there was a relation between the number of cigarettes consumed and infertility. The comparative statistical analysis of the 2020 experiment proved the dose-dependent relationship between smoking and infertility. Men who passively smoke more than five cigarettes a day for more than two years have high chances of being infertile. It includes active smokers too.

Conclusion:

This experiment fulfilling its purpose educates us that not only smokers but people around smokers are at risk. They run at a higher risk of infertility or of the side effects of smoking in general. It also informs us that this infertility problem is dose-dependent. Smoking, in general, is harmful but smoking more than five cigarettes a day for over a long time can have adverse effects. Smoking must be eradicated immediately.  Government should take necessary strict actions as there is no significant benefit to smoking. People who smoke should be considerate of others as studies reveal that passive smoking is even more dangerous.

Also read: The device helps individuals with paralysis in communication

References:

1. Dhair, A., & Abed, Y. (2021). Dose-dependent effect of smoking on fertility status among men in gaza strip, Palestine. Dubai Medical Journal, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1159/000517354
2. Ramlau-Hansen, C. H., Thulstrup, A. M., Aggerholm, A. S., Jensen, M. S., Toft, G., & Bonde, J. P. (2007). Is smoking a risk factor for decreased semen quality? A cross-sectional analysis. Human Reproduction, 22(1), 188–196. https://doi.org/10.1093/humrep/del364

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