Add Mobile Phones To The List Of Modern Tech That Could Make You Sterile

from the uh-oh dept

A couple years ago, a story spread quickly about how men using laptops on their laps could harm their fertility. Apparently, that's not the only technology that's a problem. A new study is saying that mobile phone use may increase male infertility as well. Remember back when we were just worried about mobile phones causing cancer? Of course, the study sounds a bit extreme. It found that men who spend an average of four hours a day using their mobile phones tend to have reduced sperm counts. The researchers behind the study say more research is needed (also known as: give us another grant) to determine exactly what's causing the problem: radiation, battery heat, both or something else. A different report on the study suggests that constant text messaging, rather than talking, may be partly to blame: "Sending text messages uses less power than talking but it can be a more intense emission of radiation... I've seen men on trains spending two or three hours continually texting with their mobile phones held in their laps, and they press Send in the same position when it starts to seek a signal." So now you know. Until further research is done, if you plan on having kids, you might want to hold your phones (and laptops) away from your laps.
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  • identicon
    firewall, 24 Oct 2006 @ 11:24am

    ...

    Luogo interessante, buon disegno, lo gradisco, signore! =) http://www.lukxi.org/firewall

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    DittoBox, 24 Oct 2006 @ 11:50am

    Cellphones are bad, m'kay?

    I'm really tired of of this crap from the media.

    "Cell phones could cause $PROBLEM".

    Why don't they just publish a single story like that, and let people fill in the $PROBLEM variable?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    sceptic, 24 Oct 2006 @ 12:02pm

    breathing is bad too

    If a man talks for 4 hours on the phone, may be his just too stressed to make any kids?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jimbo, 24 Oct 2006 @ 12:42pm

    Radiation

    Shouldn't they be having mutant kids instead of just lowered sperm counts?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Porn, 24 Oct 2006 @ 1:03pm

      Re: Radiation

      What about taking a picture. So all those pictures I took of my balls might have created mutant babies that could be wondering the earth right now?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2006 @ 1:55pm

    News in that should be in the Headlines

    Reading bogus "News" stories is a potential cause of stupidity, senility, and sterility (boredom is a leading cause of sterility, or didn't you know).

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Live at 5, 24 Oct 2006 @ 1:56pm

    News in that should be in the Headlines

    Reading bogus "News" stories is a potential cause of stupidity, senility, and sterility (boredom is a leading cause of sterility, or didn't you know).

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chronno S. Trigger, 24 Oct 2006 @ 2:16pm

    Cell phones

    Cell phones DON'T PRODUCE RADIATION. They run on a 2.5Ghz radio range (Depending on your phone) Just like wireless routers, cordless phones, and however many hundreds of other things. Unless your phone is powered by plutonium, your fine.

    The problem is that there just sitting there causing a lack of blood flow to the lower arias. It can also cause a stroke. How many people do you know who text for 4hours strait have real sex lives anyways.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      lj535i, 24 Oct 2006 @ 3:22pm

      Re: Cell phones

      @Chronnos

      A couple of points:

      Radiation is the correct word. Anything that emits electromagnetic energy gives off radiation. Light bulbs emit radiation- visible light- which generally isn't considered hazardous to living organisms. Plutonium gives of radiation in a different frequency range which *is* harmful to life.

      Most cell phones these days work in the 800mhz or 1.9ghz band. The *implication* in various studies of this nature is that 1.9ghz is close enough to the microwave band (2.4ghz) to cause slight heating of water in the cells and thus affect their function- usually negatively. Sperm production in particular is very sensitive to added heat- that's why it takes place outside your body.

      WiFi routers (802.11b and g) communicate in the 2.4ghz band- same as your microwave oven. Cordless phones frequently use a combination of 2.4 and 5.8.

      I agree with you however that some who texts four hours a day has issues of more significance than holding a microwave heater too close to his pickle.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Pwntastic, 24 Oct 2006 @ 2:21pm

    Unless they're sitting on the train texting on their way home their girlfriend

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Rob Miles, 24 Oct 2006 @ 2:33pm

    Chating 4 hours with a girlfriend?

    The normal guy, even a geek, who chats for 4 hours with a girlfriend is just increasing their chances of saying something stupid and pretty much guaranteeing no sex for quite some time.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    So you think you know?, 24 Oct 2006 @ 2:47pm

    "Dr. Hyland and other MDs worry that cell phone’s deep penetration into children’s brains and the resulting disruption to the subtle electronic exchanges between brain cells could cause kids to lose the ability to concentration and remember, making it impossible to learn."

    new research from Sweden’s Lund University Hospital corroborates the Spanish findings. The Swedes also found that exposure to radiation emitted by mobile handsets and neighborhood relay towers can destroy cells in the parts of the brain responsible for memory, movement and learning.

    Professor Leif Salford, the neurologist who carried out 15 years of research said, “We saw opening of the blood-brain barrier even after a short exposure to radiation at the same level as mobile phones.”

    Salford added, "We had already shown that mobile phone radiation can allow harmful proteins and toxins to pass through the blood-brain barrier. Now we also see a significant degree of damage to neurons in the brains of adolescent rats. If this effect is transferred to young humans the effects can be terrifying."

    Why is this research from Europe? Maybe because they are ahead of the US in wireless communications, thus a bigger risk?"

    No one knows why autism and ADD are on the rise, maybe this is one of the reasons.

    A guy I work with told me that he can "feel" when he walks near a WiFi network. Who the hell knows. Oh, he used to work for SBC, so he is no stranger to technology or communication devises.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    anna, 24 Oct 2006 @ 3:13pm

    Stop with these scare tactics already

    I am sick and tired of being told by the media that I should live in fear of everything from another 911 to my DH's nuts getting nuked from his cell phone radiation. Forget about it. We all end up in the same place (I hope) at the end so what does it matter how we get there?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    B_Billy, 24 Oct 2006 @ 3:53pm

    Radiation is the least of our worries regarding cell phones. Those things turn perfectly nice & polite people into complete A-Holes!

    DESTROY ALL CELL PHONES UNTIL PEOPLE LEARN SOME DAMN MANNERS!

    I apologize if you are in the small minority that is actually polite with their phones.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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