Men who carry their cell phones in their pants pocket may be reducing their chances of having children.
A review by the University of Exeter in England suggested that sperm number and movement were affected by carrying cell phones in pockets, reported BBC News. Published in the journal Environment International, the study said electromagnetic radiation could be to blame.
ScienceDaily.com wrote that previous research has implied that radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation emitted by the devices can have a detrimental effect on male fertility.
The research team led by Dr. Fiona Mathews analyzed 10 separate studies on sperm quality involving 1,492 men. These included laboratory tests on sperm exposed to cell phone radiation and questionnaires of men at fertility clinics.
Sperm quality was measured in three different ways:
- Mobility (how well sperm moves towards an egg)
- Viability (how much of the sperm is healthy)
- Sperm concentration (the number of sperm per unit of semen)
Among men with no exposure to cell phones, 50-85 percent of their sperm had a normal mobility.
Researchers found this fell by an average of eight percentage points when there was exposure to cell phones, stated ScienceDaily.com. Similar effects were seen for sperm viability.
HealthDay News wrote that the investigators evaluated the effects of cell phone exposure on sperm concentration as being unclear.
Dr. Mathews told the Daily Mail that while the findings suggest that cell phone radiation has an impact on male fertility, much more research is needed to draw any firm conclusions.
"Given the enormous scale of mobile phone use around the world, the potential role of this environmental exposure needs to be clarified. This study strongly suggests that being exposed to radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation from carrying mobiles in trouser pockets negatively affects sperm quality. This could be particularly important for men already on the borderline of infertility, and further research is required to determine the full clinical implications for the general population,” she said as reported by ScienceDaily.com.