14 July 2026 | Story Velisile Bukula. PhotoiStock
As fertility rates continue to decline worldwide and an estimated one in six people experience infertility during their lifetime, a University of Cape Town (UCT) academic is helping to bring greater attention to one of the emerging environmental factors linked to reproductive health.
Professor Aqiel Dalvie, the director of the Centre for Environmental and Occupational Research in UCT’s School of Public Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences, features in a new United Kingdom documentary, Infertile. The investigative feature explores the role of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in declining fertility and reproductive health, bringing together leading international scientists, alongside people directly affected by infertility and chemical exposure.
Produced by Escapade Productions and internationally distributed by Espresso Media, Infertile examines growing scientific evidence on how chemicals found in everyday products, including plastics, pesticides, cosmetics, food packaging and household items, may be contributing to one of the most significant public health challenges of the modern era.
Professor Dalvie was invited to participate because of his internationally recognised research on the reproductive health effects of EDCs in <a href="https://absafricatv.com/will-el-nino-drought-hit-food-prices-in-south-africa-earlier-rains-and-grain-stocks-offer-hope/" title="Will El Niño drought hit food prices in South Africa? Earlier rains and grain stocks offer hope”>South African communities.
“The topic is a major public health issue globally and has been the central focus of my research throughout my career. I agreed to participate in the documentary because it provides an important opportunity to increase public awareness and understanding of this growing challenge,” he said.
His contribution includes an interview and footage from fieldwork conducted as part of a long-running study investigating the reproductive health effects of exposure to currently used pesticides among children living in rural communities in the Western Cape.
Dalvie has worked at UCT for more than three decades and is also the chair in Global Environmental Health, a bilateral South Africa–Switzerland collaboration between UCT and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. The partnership seeks to advance understanding of diseases linked to environmental exposures, particularly in environmentally marginalised communities, and translate research findings into public health action.
Over the course of his career, Dalvie has led multidisciplinary research on environmental pollution and its impact on human health, with a particular focus on reproductive health. His work examines EDCs, substances that can interfere with the body’s hormonal systems and affect normal physiological processes.
“Our research has demonstrated widespread and persistent environmental pollution by EDCs in both urban and rural settings in South Africa.”
His research has investigated hormone levels, semen quality and fertility among malaria vector control workers exposed to Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) through indoor residual spraying, as well as exposure to EDCs among farm workers and urban and rural communities across South Africa.
One of his flagship projects, launched in 2017, is a cohort study following 1 000 children in the rural Western Cape. The research investigates how exposure to pesticides may influence reproductive hormone levels, pubertal development and reproductive health outcomes during childhood and adolescence.
“Our research has demonstrated widespread and persistent environmental pollution by EDCs in both urban and rural settings in South Africa. We have consistently detected pesticide residues among farm workers, rural residents and vulnerable groups, including women and children,” Dalvie explained.
“These exposure levels are high compared with those reported in many other countries. Our findings also provide preliminary evidence of associations between pesticide exposure and adverse reproductive health outcomes in both adults and children, and we are continuing to investigate these relationships in greater detail.”
The importance of interdisciplinary research
The documentary highlights the growing importance of interdisciplinary research in understanding the relationship between environmental exposures and human health. It also underscores the role of universities such as UCT in generating evidence that informs policy, raises public awareness and contributes to protecting the health of present and future generations.
Infertile was released internationally on 8 July 2026 and is available to audiences through the documentary’s official website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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