Much of the furor over sperm counts came from a 1992 report in a British medical journal citing a 50 percent decline in sperm counts from 1938 to 1990 among men from industrialized countries. After promoting, in a 1993 Lancet article, the hypothesis that this decline was associated with estrogenic compounds, the authors later admitted that the apparent decrease in sperm counts was due to computational error and was not supported by a reanalysis of the data. A ten-year study of the semen quality of Wisconsin men showed no change over time in sperm concentration or motility. Conclusion Chlorine is an inextricable part of our lives and is necessary for the maintenance of the present high standards in our food, water and housing. Chlorine contributes in the fields of medicine, transportation and communications.
Chlorine is a building block for nearly all chemical processes.
It plays a vital role in the health of the population and in maintaining a clean and safe environment. If chlorine and its chemical derivatives are banned, the expense to the American people in finding replacements will cost billions of dollars and result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. We will have taken a giant step backward in our standard of living. Gordon W. Gribble, Ph.D., is a professor of chemistry at Dartmouth College. Earth Day '96 is a project of The Heartland Institute .