Purpose: The purpose of the study was to observe the effects of fenvalerate exposure on the semen quality of occupational workers.
Materials and methods: Thirty-two male workers who were exposed to fenvalerate and 46 male administrators in the office in the same pesticide factory were selected as the exposure group and internal control group, respectively, and 22 male administrators in a center for disease control served as the external control group. In order to evaluate the exposure levels, the concentration of fenvalerate, toluene and xylene in the ambient air of the work place in these three groups were monitored simultaneously for 3 consecutive days. Moreover, the amount of fenvalerate in individual sampling and dermal contamination were evaluated in the exposure group and external control group. After the semen was collected according to the standard method, the workers' semen qualities were analyzed.
Results: Concentration of fenvalerate in the exposure areas was 21.55 x 10(-4) mg/m(3). The fenvalerate concentration in individual samplings in the exposure areas was 0.11 mg/m(3). The dermal contamination for workers in the fenvalerate exposure area was 0.05 mg/m(3). Fenvalerate was not detected in individual samplings collected in external areas. Sperm motion parameters through routine semen analysis in the exposure group were decreased significantly, and the abnormality rate of viscidity and coagulation was increased significantly as compared with the internal and the external control groups (p < .05 or p < .01). Furthermore, sperm progression and beat cross frequency (BCF) (4.20 +/- 1.68 Hz) in the exposure group were also significantly lower than those in the external control group by computer-assisted sperm motility analysis (CASA) (p < .05).
Conclusion: Occupational exposure to fenvalerate could affect the semen quality of the workers, but the conclusion warrants further complete investigation due to various limitations of the study.