One in every ten couples in China faces infertility problems, and smoking, stress and pollution are to blame says a report released Monday out of Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University. Researchers were surprised to find that university students selected as part of a fertility study were shooting blanks at an alarming rate. The author of the report told a group at Jiao Tong, “A certain percentage of the sperm donated by seemingly healthy college boys to our sperm bank in Shanghai is not eligible in terms of sperm count or motility.” Reproductive experts are fearful that in a country with half of Asia’s old people, an infertility problem would create a sociological and economical crisis in the coming years. While clearly cigarettes, poor air quality and stress all play a role in procreative problems, perhaps China’s stance on abortion factors into the problem of infertility more than some bad batches of sperm. Reuters, in a story Monday, mentions that women that have multiple abortions, not a rarity here, show much higher rates of infertility. Perhaps, facing an aging population crisis, the old policies that controlled population do not fit today’s high-paced economy-driven culture. And if not for that, then China should aim to fix fertility for a different reason– to ensure the survival of China’s coolest demographic– the babies.

•Reuters: Pollution, Stress Blamed for Poor China Sperm Count

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