By Alpha Doggs on Mon, 11/06/2006 - 1:05pm

Researchers say that men who use cell phones frequently have significantly lower sperm counts than those who don't use cell phones at all.

The observational study of 361 men undergoing evaluation for infertility was conducted in Cleveland, New Orleans and Mumbai in India, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. (http://www.asrm.org/Media/Press/cellphone.pdf)

Of men in the group with a normal sperm count, non-users of cell phones had sperm counts averaging 86 million per milliliter vs. 50 million for those using a cell phone four-plus hours a day. The spontaneous movements and the form of the sperm also seemed to be negatively affected by cell phone use, the research showed.

The researchers cited electromagnetic radiation of cell phones and the heat they generate as possible reasons for sperm differences among those using cell phones and those not using them. Further research needs to be done to better understand why the differences exist though, researchers said.

Not everyone in the field is fazed by the results. Epidemiologist Linda Erdreich of scientific and engineering firm Exponent was quoted in the Metro newspaper chain last week saying that cell phones don't heat the tissue in your body enough to effect big changes and also noted that the lowest average sperm count mentioned in the study -- 50 million -- is not nearly enough to be considered abnormal. http://www.networkworld.com/weblogs/layer8/006997.html

Of course, the chances of cell phones being held in a spot where they might affect sperm generation seems a lot less likely than people holding their laptop computers in such a place. Research has emerged in the past associating the heat from laptops with lower sperm counts.