ASRM: Reproductive Biologists Professional Group

Recent wildfires in the Southern California region of the USA caused widespread damage to structures and vegetation. Air quality (AQ) was severely impaired in all areas for more than a week, as warm Santa Ana winds blew from a NE to SW direction. As a native Southern Californian/Scientific IVF Lab Director, I find this natural disaster particularly intriguing. Not because of the number of simultaneous fires or how widespread and severe each fire was, but instead due to the near geographic duplication of these firestorms compared to FALL 2003. Based on the similarity of the firestorms of FALL 2003 (10-21 up to 11/9) and 2007 (10-21 up to 11/5), we in Southern California have a unique opportunity to assess the “Influence of Environmental Air Quality on Embryo Development and IVF Success.” Some programs may have experienced AQ related problems in 2003 that warranted a change in the HVAC/chemical air filtration system which protected them in 2007. Others may have been well protected, or not, during both disasters, without change. I have decided to organize a Task Force within the RBPG to survey every IVF Center in Southern California to fully evaluate the affect of air quality on IVF outcomes by comparing pre-fire, fire and post-fire periods both in 2003 and 2007. These data will contrast geographical locations (e.g., coastal region programs are typically less affected by chronic pollution) and how different IVF Centers control ambient/ VOC conditions within the Lab. More importantly, perhaps some programs made positive changes in air filtration that would allow us to compare 2003 as a control period. I firmly believe that a widespread retrospective Survey study of Southern California is justified and will provide RBPG members, and ASRM as a whole, valuable information on what level of AQ-QC is necessary to sustain optimum IVF outcomes.

In determining the critical period to evaluate each year, your own experience and records may actually dictate the best high risk/poor Air quality time interval. In general, the following time periods have been attained by county/region, based on the start date to 100% containment date of the wildfires:

County/Region	2003 / Interval	2007 / Interval
San Diego	2003 / 10-21 to 11/9	2007 / 10-21 to 11-9
San Bernardino/Riverside	2003 / 10/21 to 11/5	2007 / 10-22 to 10-30
Orange	2003 / no direct fires (see LA)	2007 / 10-21 to 10-28
Los Angeles	2003 / 10-21 to 10-31	2007 / 10-21 to 10/29
Ventura	2003 / 10-23 to 11/15	2007 / 10-21 to 10-29
LA / Ventura	Note* secondary Malibu fire:	2007 / 11-23 to 11-27

I would like to request that a RBPG-affiliated member of each IVF Center take the time to complete the survey to the best of their abilities. I have selected a Task Force composed of one RBPG member from each affected County (Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and San Bernardino/Riverside) to participate in developing a comprehensive Survey and statistically evaluate the summarized data. Our goal is to complete this survey by April 1, 2008 (accounting for ongoing 2007 pregnancies through 12 weeks) and submit an abstract for Oral Presentation, from the RBPG Task Force, at the ASRM conference in San Francisco next November. All affiliations will remain confidential in terms of data comparisons by submitting data to a neutral member of the Task Force, Dr. Lee Higdon III (in South Carolina). However, each participating IVF Center will be properly acknowledged in any resulting publication/presentation.

Please participate by completing all or part of the Air Quality Survey (PDF).
Please start by completing the general lab information on page 1 , ASAP (no later than March 7th).
Initial responses and all questions should be directed to Mitchel Schiewe, while Page 2 and 3 responses should be sent to Lee Higdon, III.

It may be easier to simply FAX back the Survey responses to Mitch at (949)642-2954 or Lee at (864)-455-5096 , or if you prefer, you can reformat each answer space and return it by e-mail (mitch@socalfertility.com or LHigdon@ghs.org, respectively). Please return Page 1, as soon as possible, before attempting to complete the IVF Outcome data for 2003 and 2007. Your full participation, as Embryologists, is important to clinical IVF and ASRM –affiliated members. Furthermore, this Survey can serve as a valuable QC exercise to your program.

Thank you for your participation,

Mitchel C. Schiewe, PhD
RBPG Chairman 2008-2009

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