PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Kuang-Yi Chang AU - Ching-Chun Lin AU - Tung-Sheng Shih AU - Pau-Chung Chen TI - Time to pregnancy study in male workers exposed to carbon disulfide in the rayon industry AID - 10.1136/oemed-2011-100382.17 DP - 2011 Sep 01 TA - Occupational and Environmental Medicine PG - A6--A6 VI - 68 IP - Suppl 1 4099 - http://oem.bmj.com/content/68/Suppl_1/A6.2.short 4100 - http://oem.bmj.com/content/68/Suppl_1/A6.2.full SO - Occup Environ Med2011 Sep 01; 68 AB - Objectives The aim of study was to investigate whether exposure to carbon disulfide (CS2) has an impact on couple fecundability. Methods A total of 56 male workers in the rayon industry were recruited in this retrospective cohort study. We used time to pregnancy (TTP) as a measure of couple fecundability, which was defined as the duration between the dates of discontinuing contraceptive procedures and beginning of last menstrual period before pregnancy, and used a structured questionnaire to interview each male worker and his spouse. We conducted the exposure assessment of CS2 using previously air-sampling data. Finally, we analysed the data of TTP using the discrete Cox's proportional hazards model. Results The pregnancies with the employment of 10 years or more had a lower fecundability density ratio (FDR=0.47; 95% CI: 0.23 to 0.93) and those exposed more than 30 ppm had a lower ratio (FDR=0.58; 95% CI: 0.26 to 1.29) compared to those before the employment. Furthermore, workers exposed more than 30 ppm and their employment of 10 years or more were associated with a decreased fecundability density ratio (FDR=0.42; 95% CI: 0.19 to 0.93). Conclusions The results showed that the exposure to CS2 had a significantly detrimental effect on male fecundability, especially for those with long duration and high level of CS2 exposure.