CLEVELAND, OHIO - A new study suggests talking on the cell phone for more than four hours a day may lower men's sperm counts. The researchers think this may be due to radiation from mobile phones, which may affect sperm by damaging DNA.The study of 364 men found that those who used their cell phones more than four hours a day had less sperm, and the sperm that they had didn't move as well and were of poorer quality than the sperm of men who were less reliant on cell phones. Their sperm counts, on average, were 50 million per milliliter.
Men who talked on the cell phone for two to four hours a day had fairly healthy sperm, and their sperm counts averaged about 69 million per milliliter. Men who never used cell phones had the healthiest sperm of the group, with sperm counts of about 86 million per milliliter.
Dr. Ashok Agarwal from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, who led the research, said the study did not prove that cell phones negatively affected sperm quality, but the findings show that more research is warranted.
He said at an American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in New Orleans, "There was a significant decrease in the most important measures of sperm health, and that should definitely be reflected in a decrease in fertility, which is seen worldwide.
"People use mobile phones without thinking twice what the consequences might be."
However, Dr. Allen Percy, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, is skeptical that such a link exists.
He tells BBC News, "This is a good study, but I don't think it tackles the issue."
"If you're holding it up to your head to speak a lot, it makes no sense that it is having a direct effect on your testes," he says.
Percy says people who spend a lot of time on their cell phones may be more sedentary, undergo more stress or eat more junk food, and such lifestyle factors - not cell phone use itself - may be the real culprits.
from All Headline News
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