Blog

If the findings from this research are true then men who are still in the business of baby making are in trouble. Scientists say that men who keep cell phones in trouser pocket in the talk mode while using a Bluetooth device may have problem in fathering a child.

Since the gadget became part of the everyday life of a majority of people in the world, a lot of studies had been carried out on the effects of the gadget on health. For instance, there had been research findings linking the radiation from it to brain cancer.

Though most of the researches were inconclusive, findings suggest that danger may be lurking around and as such we should be cautious in the way we use some of these modern gadgets.

”We found increased oxidative stress and a decrease in sperm motility,” said investigator, Dr. Ashok Agarwal, Director of Reproductive Research at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, United States.

But the President, National Association of Telecoms Subscribers, Mr. Deolu Ogubanjo said there is no cause for alarm since the World Health Organisation had maintained that cell phone radiation had not been found injurious.

Agarwal and his colleagues conducted a prospective, controlled trial looking at the effects of Bluetooth technology on male fertility. Presenting the findings at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual meeting late 2009, Agarwal said keeping a cell phone in a trouser pocket while talking on a Bluetooth device may expose the human testes to high-power radiofrequency electromagnetic waves.

According to a report in Renal & Urology News, the researchers found an increased production of free radicals or reactive oxygen species in semen after exposing semen to RF-EMW emitted by a cell phone. The team realised, however, that it was difficult to estimate the accurate amount of radiofrequency electromagnetic waves exposure to human testes because testes are separated by scrotal layers from the cell phone.

They used a computer biomodeling program to calculate the distance in an in vitro experiment. The experiment was designed to mimic the RF-EMW exposure while a cell phone was kept in the trouser pocket (in the talk mode).

For their new investigation, the researchers examined the effect of RF-EMW exposure on sperm parameters at a specific distance and identified the type of free radicals produced by human sperm.

After investigation, the researchers found RF-EMW exposed semen samples showed significantly lower sperm motility and viability. The exposed samples also showed an 18 per cent increased production of extracellular seminal, RSOS, compared with the non-exposed semen samples. The investigators concluded that the significant decline in sperm quality in specimens exposed to RF-EMW may be mediated by increased ROS production.

They hypothesised that when a man talks on a Bluetooth and the cell phone is on talk mode in the pocket or attached to a belt, it might be dangerous and could cause infertility. Agarwal told Renal & Urology News, that ”we do feel further studies are needed. At this time I would say excessive use should be avoided. However, there is a need for new studies to prove our in vitro findings in an in vivo condition.”

The Cleveland Clinic had in the past four years done studies that showed the harmful effects of cell phone-generated electromagnetic radiation on semen quality. In recent years more than a dozen studies have been published by other groups supporting Cleveland Clinic‘s findings.

In a study published in the January 2008 issue of the Fertility and Sterility journal, Agarwal and his team discovered that sperm counts were inversely proportional to cell phone usage - that is men who used the phone for a few minutes a day had higher counts than men who used cell phones for hours.

Agarwal had done an earlier study in 2006, with 364 men, where he found sperm counts decreased from 86 million per milliliter to 66 million per multimeter for men who didn‘t use a cell phone to men who used phones more than four hours a day.

However, Ogubanjo said that since the World Health Organisation had maintained that cell phone radiation had not been found injurious, people should not panic.

He said, ”Until WHO says that cell phone radiation has adverse effect, people should not panic unnecessarily. These are researches that have not been approved by WHO, which is the recognised authority on health matters in the world.

”Besides, cell phone radiation is non-ionising and is not very dangerous. There are more dangerous ones like the radiation from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria masts which is ionising. These researchers are just crying foul over nothing as who has not approved their findings.

He, however, acknowledged that there was need for moderation in the use of cell phone. ”Of course, everything that is not moderated can have adverse effect. So, there is need for moderation. It is better we prevent the hazards from not just cell phone radiation, but every form of moderation,” he said.

All, indeed, does not seem to be well. So caution is the word. To prevent some of these hazards, Dr. Reeja Tharu, writing on www.medindia.com, recommends that we should avoid keeping cell phones in our trouser pockets. He says, ”The hip produces 80 per cent of the body‘s red blood cells and is especially vulnerable to EMR damage. Close proximity may also affect fertility.”