Good News, Bad News As Data Shows Sperm Count Plummeting In Men In Western World

DETROIT (WWJ) - Sperm counts in men throughout the western world appear to be plummeting.

A study by an international team of scientists who analyzed data from nearly 43,000 men around the world found that sperm counts dropped by more than half over nearly four decades.

Professor Todd Shackelford, chair of Psychology at Oakland University, says it could be any number of factors:

"It could be something to do with diets in the Western world," said Shackelford. "Exposure to particular chemicals in foods, it could be exposure to particular chemical exposure in shampoos and other sorts of body adornments - cologne and perfumes."

Shackelford says it could also be exposure to other pollutants that are found in this part of the world.

"I think we're far more likely to obliterate ourselves than we are to extinguish ourselves for lack of reproduction - I mean, the population continues to increase dramatically -- so I see all but no repercussions in terms of the number of offspring produced, after all, it only requires a single sperm to fertilize an egg - so whether you have 300 million sperm or 150 million sperm you still just need one sperm to fertilize an egg."

The good news ... he doesn't believe it'll affect reproducing all too much.