https://consumer.healthday.com/environmental-health-information-12/chemical-health-news-730/common-household-chemicals-harm-sperm-in-both-men-and-dogs-743428.html

TUESDAY, March 12, 2019 (HealthDay News) – Two chemicals found in household products and food could harm male fertility in both dogs and people, U.K. researchers say.

The chemicals are the plasticizer DEHP – used in products such as carpets, flooring, upholstery, clothes, wires and toys – and the industrial chemical polychlorinated biphenyl 153 (PCB153). Even though it is banned worldwide, PCB153 is still widely present in the environment, including food.

For this study, researchers from the University of Nottingham conducted laboratory tests with sperm from men and dogs. Their tests revealed that levels of the two chemicals consistent with environmental exposure had the same damaging effects on sperm in both species – reduced sperm motility and increased fragmentation of DNA.

Previous studies have reported a 50 percent decline in human sperm quality worldwide in the past 80 years. Another study by the same U.K. team found a similar decline in domestic dogs, pointing to the possibility that chemicals present in the home could be a factor.

"This new study supports our theory that the domestic dog is indeed a 'sentinel' or mirror for human male reproductive decline, and our findings suggest that man-made chemicals that have been widely used in the home and working environment may be responsible for the fall in sperm quality reported in both man and dog that share the same environment," study leader Richard Lea said in a university news release.