Beware men! Do you have the habit of keeping your mobile phone in the pockets of your trousers while talking on hand-free? Or do clip the mobile to your belt while talking? If so you are doing that at the cost of your fertility, warns a recent study.
In an interview given to Newsweek magazine, Ashok Agarwal of Cleveland Clinic said those men who keep their cell phones in their pockets or clip them to their belts while using an earpiece to chat may be compromising their sperms.
This is the follow up study of the research conducted last year by the clinic on 361 men.
That study, published in the 'Journal of Fertility and Sterility', said men who said they used their phones for more than four hours each day had the lowest average sperm count and the fewest normal, viable sperm.
It was this significant relationship between cell-phone use and sperm quality, which prompted the group to study further, by exposing semen samples to electromagnetic radiation from cell phones to see what, if any, effects occur.
The researchers took sperm samples from 23 healthy men, and from nine men with known fertility issues. The samples were then divided into two portions to make a control group and a test group.
"We exposed the test group sperm to a cellphone in -talk mode with a radiation of 850 megahertz, the frequency most often used by cellphones in the US. We exposed the sperm for about one hour to see if there was any effect on the sperm quality in exposed and unexposed portions," he told Newsweek.
The researchers looked at several markers, including mobility, viability and cellular or molecular changes.
"There were 85 per cent more free radicals generated by the exposed sperm samples in both healthy and infertile specimens versus the control group, and a 6 per cent decrease in antioxidants in the exposed samples, the chemicals that fight free-radical damage," said Ashok Agarwal.
The decrease in sperm parameters was dependent on the duration of daily exposure to cell phones and independent of the initial semen quality, the study pointed out.
But he said the researchers were not sure if one does not use a hand-free device and keep the cell phone in the pocket in standby in mode could cause damage to sperm.
However, a previous study by Dr Imre Fejes of the University of Szeged in Hungary had claimed that phones might cause damage while in stand-by mode as well, as they make regular transmissions to maintain contact with the nearest radio masts.
He had even presented a paper in this regard in the international scientific conference of fertility experts in Berlin in 2004.
As per his study, the men who had their phone on standby throughout the day had about a third less sperm than those who did not. And, of the remaining, again a high number of sperm were found to be swimming abnormally and this reduced the chances of fertilization.
In his paper, Dr. Fejes had said, "The prolonged use of cell phones may have a negative effect on spermatogenesis (sperm production) and male fertility, that deteriorates both concentration and motility."
But there were criticisms that the study had not taken other factors into account and the veracity of the findings were doubtful.
Another study conducted in Europe recently had also pointed out to the possibility of excessive use of mobile phones causing infertility in men and women.
Then there was a case study of a very sexually active man who lost his sperm count to zero, as he was using a high technology high-powered mobile instrument and keeping it in the trouser pocket regularly.
Ever since the mobile phone had penetrated the global market, there were debates on the health hazards pertaining to the modern gadget. There were questions whether a mobile phone would cause infertility, impotence, heart attack, cancer etc.
But most of these studies were received with more brickbats that bouquets, especially by mobile companies, which claim their products, have no health hazards at all.
However, many health experts suggest it would be better if one uses the loud speaker of the mobile phone for excessive use. |
