Effects of pesticide exposure on time to pregnancy - Results of a multicenter study in France and Denmark

The aim of this study was to determine whether there was a relation between male exposure to pesticides and the amount of time needed to conceive (tim e to pregnancy) for farmers and agricultural workers in France and Denmark. The authors used retrospective studies to compare the time to pregnancy of couples in which the man was exposed to pesticides during the year before the birth of their youngest child with that of couples in which the man was not exposed. in 1995 and 1996, the authors studied 362 French rural worker s (142 exposed to pesticides and 220 not exposed), 449 Danish farmers (326 conventional farmers exposed to pesticides and 123 nonexposed organic farme rs), and 121 Danish greenhouse workers exposed to pesticides. The fecundabi lity ratio for exposure to pesticides (Cox model, before and after adjustme nt for confounding factors) did not differ from 1 in any of the three popul ations. In France, the adjusted fecundability ratio was 1.17 (95% confidenc e interval (CI) 0.89-1.55) for exposed and nonexposed agricultural workers. In Denmark, it was 1.09 (95% CI 0.82-1.43) for exposed and nonexposed farm ers and 0.83 (95% CI 0.69-1.18) for greenhouse workers and nonexposed farme rs. Thus, this study found no relation between fertility (time to pregnancy ) and male exposure to pesticides.