Environment
Cell phone use linked to poor sperm quality
By Ben Wasserman
Feb 7, 2008 - 5:14:54 PM

THURSDAY FEB 07, 2008 (Foodconsumer.org) -- Talking on a cell phone for too long too often costs men more than a big monthly phone bill.  A new study found men spending hours talking on a cell phone each day actually had low sperm quality in terms of the count and morphology.

The more time spent on a cell phone, the lower the count and the higher the percentage of abnormal sperm, according to the study.  But researchers cautioned that this is not a cause-and-effect relationship, meaning it is unknown whether using cell phone causes bad sperm.

Early studies have linked long term cell phone use to a higher risk of brain tumors although other short term studies found no relationship between the two.

The current study of the 361 men who sought help from the Cleveland Clinic - a fertility clinic - was meant to examine an association between exposure to the radiation from cell phones and the quality of sperm.

In the study, researchers surveyed the patients for their use of cell phones in one year.  The results showed that the sperm count and quality tended to decline as cell phone use increased.

Those men who used more than four hours got the worse sperm quality, according to the study, which appears in the Jan 2008 issue of Fertility and Sterility.

The possible effect of cell phone radiation on sperm has been researched in a number of studies.  In 2007, Dr. Ji-Gen Yan at Medical College of Wisconsin and colleagues already reported that rats exposed to two 3-hour periods of daily cellular phone emissions for 18 weeks had a significantly higher incidence of sperm cell death than control group rats.

The study published in the October 2007 issue of Fertility and Sterility also found abnormal clumping of sperm cells in rats subject to cell phone emission, but not in rats without such exposure.

A study similar to the current study conducted by Hungarian researchers found even just bearing a cell phone can reduce a man's sperm count by up to 30 percent.  

The radiation from a cell phone on a belt or in a pocket or on standby was enough to reduce both sperm count and mobility of surviving sperm, according to Dr. Imre Fejes of the University of Szeged in Hungary and colleagues who present the study at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, Berlin, Germany in June, 2004.

In the study of 221 men with and without a cell phone, Fejes and colleagues found men who actively used cell phone scored 59 million sperm per milliliter of seminal fluid compared to 83 million for those without phones.

The researchers concluded "prolonged use of cell phones may have a negative effect on spermatogenesis and male fertility that presumably deteriorates both concentration and motility" although they acknowledged more research was needed to confirm the harmful effect of cell phone radiation.

According to media reports, the independent Advisory Group on Non-ionizing Radiation (AGNIR) in the UK conducted a review and issued a report in January 2004 claiming a conclusion that "It is not possible at present to say that exposure to RF (radiofrequency) radiation, even at levels below national guidelines, is totally without potential adverse health effects, and that the gaps in knowledge are sufficient to justify a precautionary approach."