Air pollution and noise might make men and women less fertile

A study has suggested that noisy neighbourhoods can make women less fertile while pollution can make men less fertile. Air pollution over five years was found to be associated with a 24% increased risk of infertility in men aged 32-45. For women, noisy neighbourhoods might be linked to a nearly 15% increased risk of infertility for those over 35.

It's been suggested that buildings should be better insulated against noise. This is a Danish study published in the British Medical Journal. They analysed the Danish National Patient Register data for 526,000 men and 377,850 women aged between 30-45 over the period 2000-2017.

The participants already had fewer than two children and were trying to have more children. The researchers were from the Danish Cancer Institute. They measured small particles in the air called PM 2.5 (particulate matter being a measure of air pollution) and noise pollution. They then cross-reference that with diagnoses of infertility as listed on the National register.

Noise

Women over 35 exposed to noise over 10.2 dB over five years experienced a 14% increased risk of fertility. This did not apply to women in their early 30s.

For men, there was a slightly increased risk of infertility due to road traffic noise among those in the 35-45 age bracket but it didn't affect men in their early 30s.

Globally

Globally, fertility rates have been decreasing. The researchers hope that their research might help in understanding this. The report says: "Political implementation of air pollution and noise mitigations may be important tools for improving birth rates in the Western world."

Mechanism

It's possible that noise pollution may increase infertility due to increased stress according to Professor Jill Belch, an expert in vascular medicine and air pollution from the University of Dundee's School of Medicine. She was not part of this research.

She said: 

"Noise pollution does not get enough attention in terms of ameliorating [fertility]; we know it has effects on mental health, hearing and sleep-even when asleep, noise is perceived as a danger signal causing the fight or flight response to occur, resulting in poor sleep quality."

She added that:

"The mechanism of decreased fertility in women could be related to these, or to a completely unknown mechanism, but the implications of this study, if validated, should require a soundproofing standard for all new bills."

She believes that the findings might have a "very profound" impact on future generations.

The mentioned links between noise and air pollution and infertility was found in those living in rural, suburban and urban areas and across different income and social class levels.

Professor Allison Campbell, the chief scientific officer of Care Fertility, said: 

"People trying to conceive should not be unduly concerned by this research and are advised to take proactive, proven steps such as avoiding smoking, limiting alcohol consumption and maintaining a healthy weight."

Allan Pacey, Professor of andrology at the University of Manchester said it was a good study that:

"It is possible that the real cause of this association lies with something that is not possible to measure. For example, the authors are clear that they did not have information on lifestyle factors such as alcohol use smoking or body mass index."

Cat context

There is always a cat context in terms of research about human health. It's obvious I know but I'll restate it. Cats live in our world. They live in the same environment in which we live. Their anatomy is very similar to ours. Their physiology is very similar to ours. It is likely that health issues generated from air pollution and noise can affect our companion animals in a similar way. There is no research on this as far as I know but we must always think of our companion animals when concluding that environmental factors can damage our health.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also: sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. Also, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable.

Noel Gallagher's wild parties gave his cats nervous breakdowns, he said

The Metro newspaper online tells us that Noel Gallagher's wild parties caused his cats to have nervous breakdowns. A big and bold statement because it's very difficult to tell if a cat is suffering from a nervous breakdown. In fact, do domestic cats suffer from nervous breakdowns? We don't know. I don't believe so. 

There is still a lot to learn about domestic cats particularly in respect of their brain function and their psychology. I am being too serious. What he means is that his parties made his cats anxious which is entirely to be expected. Perhaps he should have provided them with a hiding place. Perhaps he did.

Anyway, I will press on. The information comes from the man himself who said: "I had a couple of cats who had a nervous breakdown. Benson and Hedges, after the cigarettes."

Well, it is nice to know that Noel Gallagher liked cats enough to look after a couple but, by his own admission, he didn't do a great job.

He was speaking on the Take 5 podcast. He added that, "They were a pair of f*****g lightweights". I have no idea what that means. Not a clue. He then adds that his cats had "seen things that no feline should ever see."

He adds that it was a great time however. At the time, I believe, he was living with his now estranged wife Sara MacDonald and his children, Anais, Donovan and Sonny. They are now aged 23, 16 and 13 respectively. He sold the family house in 2005 and looks back at that time with fondness he says.

He added that "They were great times. It was open house. I look back on it as just really fun, happy, hedonistic, carefree times. I didn't have any kids. It was great. That period from 1998, there were a couple of years that were a bit turbulent but I enjoyed it.

I don't understand this either! Because he said that he had a great time from 1998 and his oldest child is Anais who is aged 23. 1998 is 25 years ago. That means Anais was born during this time that he enjoyed so much. He says that he didn't have any kids at that time! Like I said I'm confused.

Correction/clarification: Noel Gallagher, the 53-year-old former oasis star, lives with his wife Sara and his sons Donovan, 13, and Sonny, 10. He has homes in Hampshire and in London. They have a family cat. He also has a 21-year-old daughter, Anais, from his past marriage to Meg Matthews but she doesn't live with him currently.

He confessed that he would be keen to revive his former band oasis despite the long-running feud with his brother Liam Gallagher. The band imploded in 2009.

I wonder whether he has pet cats at the moment? We don't know. I hope so (he does, see below). He probably lives a quiet life now. Ideal for a cat! On second thoughts I doubt if it is that quiet.

Noel Gallagher, the British musician and songwriter known for being a member of the band Oasis, is a cat owner. He has expressed his love for cats in interviews and has been photographed with his pet cats. In fact, he has mentioned his cats in several interviews, including sharing stories about their antics and companionship. - Poe using AI tech

Volunteers sitting with the animals during 4th July firework celebrations

All that I have of this story is this photograph and it is a great photograph of volunteers sitting with the rescue animals at an unknown shelter in the US on July 4 to comfort them when the fireworks start to go off. It is a heartwarming photograph. A photograph to soften the hardened heart. A heart hardened by the usual hassles of living on this planet which for most of us isn't that easy at least some of the time. There are good people out there and they volunteer their time.

Volunteers sitting with the animals during 4th July firework celebrations. Photo: Facebook page of 'Artistic Freedom'.

I guess, too, that the people benefit because they are able to mix with like-minded people so it is a great way to socialise. And of course, they know that they are doing something good in helping animals who are already stressed by being confined to small cages in a noisy shelter with strange people wandering by from time to time.

I am sure that stress is the biggest psychological problem for rescue cats and dogs in shelters. It affects their behaviour which in turn affects their adaptability. For them it is a double whammy of stress-inducing influences because they are already stressed and they going to be stress some more because of the strange and loud noises. Well done to these people. The photograph caught my eye and I felt that I needed to circulate it on the Internet a little bit.

The Internet does not help me in trying to find out how commonplace this type of volunteer work is in the USA. My gut feeling is that it is not that uncommon but it is the first time that I've seen this kind of photograph and I have seen tens of thousands of photographs of animal shelters.

Are all cats afraid of hoovers?

No! take a look at this video on Twitter. We know that most if not nearly all domestic cats are afraid of hoovers but not all. It depends on the cat's personality and his training. Cats can get used to the sound and movement of a hoover and self-train to ignore or accept them. It may take a long time to get to the situation we see in the video. Some cats are confident and some are timid. I have seen a cat thoroughly enjoying himself while his owner hoovered his belly 😃. It takes all sorts.

Are all cats afraid of hoovers? Clearly not. Screenshot.

There is a role to play for the cat's caregiver however. They can help their cat be less fearful of the sound and movement of what to the cat seems like an unknown noisy object that might be a predator. That's why they scram before you are anywhere near him/her.  Once they understand that the hoover is no dangerous you have halfway there.

Pancho, old chap, did you use your downtime from Twitter to get over your #Zuigerphobia?#TheCatsWeTweet pic.twitter.com/TZoh3vzqa2

— The Cat™ (@TheCatHeSay) February 18, 2022

Note: This is an embedded tweet. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Don't ever yell at or in the vicinity of domestic cats!

Don't ever, ever yell at or near a domestic cat. Don't even yell in the same house which there is a domestic cat. Don't even think about yelling when you live with a domestic cat. You are liable to frighten your cat and your cat may well associate you with being a hostile creature and if this happens it will weaken the bond between cat and human. 

Don't yell at or near domestic cats. Please.

It is not clever to make a video of you yelling at your cat as this complete moron did. His video has received more than 8 million views because it's been on the Internet for about 8 million years. And the only people who want to see it are voyeurs who have a curiosity about how a domestic cat would react to being shouted at. You don't need to be curious because the answer is obvious. Domestic cats are frightened by yelling at them or in the same room as them.

They respond well to the exact opposite: soothing sounds, quietness, calm, confidence and reassurances (make a cat calmer with food). This is what domestic cats thrive on. It doesn't take much to upset them with noise. Remember they have far better hearing than we have in terms of high frequencies. And the hearing is more sensitive than ours. So if we shout we don't know how they hear that but it is probably a very loud sound. I watched the video on this page about 14 years ago to see if I could put it on my website and it shocked me then and it is still on the Internet which shocks me now. It should have been removed by YouTube 14 years ago. Why? Because it is animal abuse. And it is probably in violation of YouTube policy.

The bottom line is: never yell at or in the vicinity of domestic cats. If you do it a lot then you are the wrong person to live with a domestic cat. And if you shout at your partner either male or female because you're constantly rowing then that too, I think, would disqualify you from looking after a domestic cat because you have created a home which is to hostile and too upsetting for a cat companion. Here endeth the lecture.....