The Global Decline in Human Fertility: The Post-Transition Trap Hypothesis

Aitken, Robert John

doi:10.3390/life14030369

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 129 publications

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“…Because MP research is a recent field of study, longterm and transgenerational health studies have yet to be completed, resulting in a knowledge gap in human health risks (Kirstein et al, 2021). However, it has already been shown that plastic leachates can cause reproductive disruption (Akoueson et al, 2023), potentially linked to the world's decreasing fertility rates (Aitken, 2024). We also know that adjacency to plastic production or discarding-sites can have serious health effects including cancer (Landrigan et al, 2023).…”

Section: Microplastic Toxicity In Humansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Majority of potable water microplastics are smaller than the 20 µm EU methodology limit for consumable water quality

Hagelskjær,

Margenat

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Microplastic (MP) content in nutrition including potable water is unregulated, although MP concentrations in bottled water can diverge by several orders of magnitude. The EU Directive 2020/2184 on consumable water quality recently proposed methodological approaches to the detection of MPs in potable water in the size range of 20-5000 µm. However, small MPs in the 1-20 µm range are far more likely to pass the human intestine into blood and organs. We therefore investigated MP concentrations down to 1 µm in ten individual polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottled water brands and one tap water sample by Raman microspectroscopy. Our analyses are supported by procedural blank- (negative control) and analytical recovery correction (positive control) using red polyethylene fragments in the 5-100 µm range. We find that MP concentrations range from 19 to 1,154 (n/L) [0.001 to 0.250 µg/L]. Importantly, 98 and 94% of MPs measured less than 20 and 10 µm in diameter, respectively, demonstrating the importance of small MP inclusion in potable water analyses and regulation.

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Section: Microplastic Toxicity In Humansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Majority of potable water microplastics are smaller than the 20 µm EU methodology limit for consumable water quality

Hagelskjær,

Margenat

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…The importance of maintaining the fertility rate at its natural pro le is vital issue for human healthcare, wellbeing, and race continuity; otherwise, any fertility decline will have negative impact on both current and future healthcare, socioeconomic balance and hence pose a threat for human race existence [1,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Epidemiological Declining in the Human Fertility rate in the Arab World for 10 years period 2011-2021

MAHASNEH,

Ebrahim

2024

Preprint

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Background: In recent years, there has been a noticeable global decline in fertility rate, leading to increased attention toward reproductive health and fertility. Understanding fertility trends is crucial for addressing related challenges and maintaining natural balanced fertility rate for the community well-being. Therefore, the aim was to investigate and provide baseline dataset on fertility profiling of the Arab World for the 10 years period between 2011-2021. The Arab World was classified into three regional blocks; Block-1 Arabian Peninsula countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Yemen. Block-2 Fertile Crescent Arab countries: Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and Gaza. Block-3 African Arab countries: Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia. Data on fertility rates for the 10 years period between 2011-2021 were collected from the World Bank for Arab countries. Statistical analysis along with decline in the fertility rates were determined. Results: Fertility rates varied across Arab countries in 2011 and 2021, with notable decline ranging from 24.3% to 3.8%, except for Algeria, with zero decline. Countries that exhibited significant decline were Jordan (24.3%) followed by Iraq (22.2%) then Yemen (19.1%); Whereas, countries that exhibited slight fertility decline were Libya (3.8%), followed by Tunisia (4.5%), Lebanon (4.5%) and Kuwait (4.5%). On another note, lowest fertility rate was observed in UAE as maintained between 1.7% and 1.5% and the highest fertility rate was observed in Somalia as maintained between 7.3% and 6.3% for 2011 and 2021 respectively. Conclusion: The present study reveals the declining-trend in fertility rate across Arab countries, influenced by variable factors. Therefore, we recommend to the Council of the Health Ministries in the Arab-League to focus on investigating the fertility decline as an important parameter for public health in the Arab world to maintain natural balanced fertility rate.

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Paternal age, de novo mutations, and offspring health? New directions for an ageing problem

Aitken

2024

Human Reproduction

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This Directions article examines the mechanisms by which a father’s age impacts the health and wellbeing of his children. Such impacts are significant and include adverse birth outcomes, dominant genetic conditions, neuropsychiatric disorders, and a variety of congenital developmental defects. As well as age, a wide variety of environmental and lifestyle factors are also known to impact offspring health via changes mediated by the male germ line. This picture of a dynamic germ line responsive to a wide range of intrinsic and extrinsic factors contrasts with the results of trio studies indicating that the incidence of mutations in the male germ line is low and exhibits a linear, monotonic increase with paternal age (∼two new mutations per year). While the traditional explanation for this pattern of mutation has been the metronomic plod of replication errors, an alternative model pivots around the ‘faulty male’ hypothesis. According to this concept, the genetic integrity of the male germ line can be dynamically impacted by age and a variety of other factors, and it is the aberrant repair of such damage that drives mutagenesis. Fortunately, DNA proofreading during spermatogenesis is extremely effective and these mutant cells are either repaired or deleted by apoptosis/ferroptosis. There appear to be only two mechanisms by which mutant germ cells can escape this apoptotic fate: (i) if the germ cells acquire a mutation that by enhancing proliferation or suppressing apoptosis, permits their clonal expansion (selfish selection hypothesis) or (ii) if a genetically damaged spermatozoon manages to fertilize an oocyte, which then fixes the damage as a mutation (or epimutation) as a result of defective DNA repair (oocyte collusion hypothesis). Exploration of these proposed mechanisms should not only help us better understand the aetiology of paternal age effects but also inform potential avenues of remediation.

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The Global Decline in Human Fertility: The Post-Transition Trap Hypothesis

Cited by 5 publications

References 129 publications

Majority of potable water microplastics are smaller than the 20 µm EU methodology limit for consumable water quality

Majority of potable water microplastics are smaller than the 20 µm EU methodology limit for consumable water quality

The Epidemiological Declining in the Human Fertility rate in the Arab World for 10 years period 2011-2021

Paternal age, de novo mutations, and offspring health? New directions for an ageing problem

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