Feature Article: Cell Phone Radiation

Cell phone radiation kills sperm

By KATE WALKER
UPI Correspondent

LONDON (UPI) -- While it has long been acknowledged that the props of modern life can be detrimental to one's emotional health, it emerged this week that two commonplace additions -- anti-depressants and the cell phone -- appear to negatively impact male fertility.

A study conducted by Ohio's Cleveland Clinic found that the sperm counts of heavy cell phone users -- defined as four hours a day or more -- were 40 percent lower than those who used cell phones infrequently or not at all.

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The research examined 361 men who were about to begin fertility treatment and were having their sperm analyzed for that purpose.

In addition to having lower sperm counts, the researchers found, the quality of the sperm of heavy cell-phone users was also diminished. Men who were moderate cell phone users also saw a loss is sperm count, although the lowered levels were less dramatic.

Dr. Ashok Agarwal, who led the research, told The Times of London that he believed the electromagnetic fields generated by cell phones were responsible for the diminished sperm count.

"People use mobile phones without thinking twice what the consequences may be," he said. "It is just like using a toothbrush, but mobiles could be having a devastating effect on fertility."

However, other experts have dismissed the possibility of a cell phone radiation, which is operated at skull-height, affecting the production of sperm.

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Anne Clark, of the Fertility Society of Australia, told the Herald Sun: "It is a bit of a stretch, especially when you're talking about electromagnetic forces (cell phone radiation) traveling from the mobile to the scrotum."

Clark, instead, thinks that lifestyle factors associated with cell phone use are behind the noted drop in sperm counts.

"Someone who is always glued to their phone is also more likely to be someone in a high pressure office job, potentially a heavier drinker, smoker and someone who's overweight.

"It's these guys that hang out in smoky bars, stressed and crunched up on their scrotum talking on the phone."

At New York's Cornell Medical Center, meanwhile, scientists examining two patients found a link between anti-depressants and reduced sperm counts that begs further investigation.

When treating both men for infertility, the researchers found that their low sperm counts recovered when not taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to counteract depression, and fell accordingly when the treatment was resumed.

Peter Schlegel, who presented the research to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in New Orleans, where the cell-phone research was also presented, said: "The patients had normal sperm counts and motility before medication. On the medication they have severe deterioration of both. The same patients going on and off medication had the same pattern. It shows a strong association."

The small study group means that the link must be explored further before being labeled concrete, but a clinical trial of 30 men has since begun, and results are expected in the not-too-distant future.