Dear Docs, Medicos and Friends of science
Heavy mobile use 'damages sperm' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6079782.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3681938.stm

Heavy use of mobile phones may damage men's fertility, a study has suggested.
Researchers found those men who used a phone for four hours or more a day had
fewer sperm and those they had moved less well and were of poorer quality. The
Ohio study involving 364 men was presented to the American Society for
Reproductive Medicine in New Orleans. But a UK expert said it was unlikely the
phones were to blame, as they were in use and not near the testes, and it may be
being sedentary was the cause. The team from the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in
Ohio tested the sperm of 364 men who were being treated at fertility clinics in
Mumbai, India, with their partners. It was found that the heaviest users, those
who used their phones for more than four hours a day had the lowest average
sperm counts, at 50 million per millilitre (ml) and the least healthy sperm. Men
who used their phones for between two and four hours a day averaged sperm counts
of 69 million per ml and had moderately healthy sperm. Those who said they did
not use mobile phones at all had the highest average sperm counts, of 86 million
per ml, and their sperm was of the highest quality seen.

'Used without thinking twice'

Dr Ashok Agarwal, who led the research, told the New Orleans conference the
study did not prove mobiles damaged fertility, but said it showed more research
was warranted. "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. "It is just like using a toothbrush, but
mobiles could be having a devastating effect on fertility. "It still has to be
proved, but it could be having a huge impact because mobiles are so much part of
lives." He suggested radiation from mobile phones might harm sperm by damaging
DNA, affecting the cells in the testes which produce testosterone or the tubes
where sperm is produced. But a British expert cast doubt on the suggested link
between mobile phone use and infertility in the men studied. Dr Allan Pacey,
senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said: "This is a
good study, but I don't think it tackles the issue. "If you're using your phone
for four hours a day, presumably it is out of your pocket for longer. "That
raises a big question: how is it that testicular damage is supposed to occur?"

Dr Pacey, who is honorary secretary of the British Fertility Society, added: "If
you are 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 added that people who use phones for
longer might be more sedentary, more stressed or eat more junk food, which might
be more likely explanations for the link found in the study.


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