Air Pollution and COVID-19: A Synergistic Effect Accelerating Male Infertility and Cancer

Evidence suggests that environmental factors influence human health and fertility. Environmental contaminants like heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, and ultrafine particles put a strain on the human body’s defense and detoxification systems, limiting the efficiency of the response against infections, aberrant cells, and dysmetabolism. Indeed, pollutants induce oxidative stress, inflammatory processes, immune and endocrine imbalance, and coagulation at systemic level, making individuals susceptible to pathogens, including viruses, and resulting as an important co-factor in causing complications and damages. Several studies point out that chronic exposure to pollutants leads to more severe and lethal forms of COVID-19. Industrial regions, exhibiting the most severe pollutant levels, experienced remarkably high mortality rates for SARS-CoV-2. In these same areas, environmental pressure is associated to a higher incidence of chronic degenerative diseases, cancer, and male infertility. Indeed, several epidemiological data report on the severe sperm decline and on lower semen quality as the first sign of environmental insults on human health, especially in polluted areas. This is why these parameters can be considered an early marker, sensitive to environmental pressure, and also indicators of the health status of an individual, and of the population. Considering that low semen quality is associated with the risk of noncommunicable diseases, all-cause mortality, and life expectancy, this chapter will focus on possible deleterious effects determined by a synergic action of pollution and COVID-19 on increasing male infertility and cancer, which represent a major concern for health systems, especially in highly polluted areas in the world.