Drive a Car, Warp Your Sperm
That's the intended message of a study of Italian tollbooth workers. The study found that the workers had poorer quality sperm compared to a control group of nearby, non-tollbooth workers. The study's authors say that exposure to traffic pollution is to blame.
But New Scientist notes that any job with a lot of sitting can build up heat to pelvic area, a no-no for those in search of the best and most sperm. Perhaps the next study in the traffic and male fertility field should examine the effect of wearing a kilt while Rollerblading to work. Or establish once and for all if driving a Porsche or other incredibly expensive sports car really does increase the size and functionality of male genitalia or merely the owner's perception of them.
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sounds like one for stossel! aka warped sperm boy 😀
It is not true that driving a Porsche will increase the size or functionality of male genitalia. It will, however, increase the driver's resemblance to said anatomy.
The point they're making is the (obvious) point that inhaling car fumes all day long may not be the best thing for your health. This is not fundamentally different than working in a smoke filled bar, in terms of it being a matter of individual choice and risk taking. It would be incorrect to imply that the same health risk would be assumed by simply driving a car, since most people wouldn't spend as much time in their cars as the tollbooth operator spends exposed to cars, and overall you're not likely to get the same fume concentrations while driving that a tollbooth operator gets from a continuous line of stopped or slow moving cars in a limited area. So I'm not sure the authors of this study intended to imply that driving per se was bad for your health, as much as an agrument against polution in general or (narrowly) an underestimated occupational hazard.
When your politics drive you to argue that breathing car exhaust isn't bad for you, it might be time to start reevaluating.
I think it's high time they banned car exhaust in the workplace.
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