Germ-Killing Bathroom Sprays May Also Beat Up Your Sperm
Researchers reported that they found that this was also the case in low doses -- not just in the high level doses that might be far from human experience of these chemicals. (Whether the "dose" is realistic in our experience is always something to look at in these studies -- before you throw out everything under your sink.)

Brian Bienkowski writes at Sci-Am:

Health researchers are concerned about specific chemicals used in cleaners--including popular brands like Lysol, Clorox and Simple Green--called quaternary ammonium compounds, used to kill microorganisms. Recent laboratory work from Virginia Tech University scientists found that when mice are exposed, both males and females have some unsettling impacts, such as weaker sperm and decreased ovulation.

Industry representatives have pushed back on the research, saying federal agencies deem the chemicals safe and that mice were exposed to unrealistically high levels.

...Some of the mice were dosed at very high levels, Hrubec acknowledged. But male mice given low doses still had reproductive problems, she said.

In addition, some male mice weren't dosed at all but rather lived in a cage and room where the compounds were used to clean cages and floors and still had impacted sperm, she said.

Proper functioning hormones are vital for reproduction, and much research recently has focused on endocrine disrupting chemicals, which mimic and alter hormones.

It is too early to speculate why these cleaning chemicals are causing problems for the mice, Hrubec said.

But some of the impacts--such as the reduction in number of "heat" cycles for the females--are "hormonally driven," raising suspicion of endocrine disruption, she said.

...Dr. Jeanne Conry, an obstetrician and past president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said most physicians do not understand how little research is done on chemicals prior to being released into the environment. These studies, she said, should be taken into account.

"We walk a fine line between being alarming and being aware," Conry said. "I tell women eat healthy, live a healthy lifestyle and keep your cleaning as simple as possible, maybe use something like vinegar and water."

Cleaning with vinegar from -- yes, there is such a thing -- The Vinegar Institute.