Sperm Epigenetics May Be Skewed by Dad’s Exposure to Plastics

Chemicals found in plastics and personal-care products like shaving cream have been known to alter men’s hormone levels and diminish semen quality. Now these chemicals, additives called phthalates, have been found to modify sperm epigenetics. Specifically, phthalates have been linked with altered DNA methylation patterns.Although the phthalate-induced epigenetic changes don’t disrupt DNA at the sequence level, they may skew gene expression—not just in sperm, but also in develop