[ RadSafe ] Paper titled "Relationship between cell phone use and human fertility: an observational study' should have been published in a peer reviewed journal first

Tue Oct 24 04:05:40 CDT 2006

Dear Mr Dawson,

Thank you for the message. 

 It is somewhat worrying that a paper which contains such important ("provocative") findings is presented first at a conference rather than in a peer reviewed publication. Now the popular press will lap it up. The Globe & Mail which also published the news story added the following details

"Among the men with a normal sperm count, those who did not use a cell
phone at all averaged 86 million per millilitre, with 68 per cent
motility (swimming ability) and 40 per cent being in normal form.

However, men who used a cell phone for more than four hours a day
averaged 66 million sperm per millilitre, with 48 per cent motility and
21 per cent taking normal form".

It appears that the men (364 of them) were undergoing evaluation for infertility.

The Times on line correspondent has included some critical remarks but  concluded that radiation as the likely cause for the noted reduction in sperm counts of heavy users of cell phone.

Dr Ashok Agarwal, the author of the paper attempted to give some reason for the observed reduction in sperm counts. The authors carried out the observationsl study in Cleveland, Mumbai and New Orleans. It is not clear whether they took in to account  possible confounding factors. Without that it is naive to make any statement on the value of the observations. Dr. Agarwal has impressive qualifications.

Two weeks ago a journalist approached me asking for a "TV/Sound byte" on mobile phone safety. I summarised the (HPA/NRPB/)Stewart's report and the press release on the topic from the WHO.I do not know how much of my statement finally appeared in the programme.
They would have loved to include Dr Agarwal's findings!

K.S.Parthasarathy
Ph.D

(formerly,
Secretary, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board)

Raja
Ramanna Fellow

Strategic
Planning Group,

Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences

Department
of Atomic Energy

Room
No 18

Ground
Floor, North Wing

Vikram
Sarabhai Bhavan

Mumbai
400094

E-mail
ksparth at yahoo.co.uk

91+22
25555327 (O)

91+22
25486081 (O)

91+22
27706048 (R)

9869016206
(mobile)

----- Original Message ----
From: "Dawson, Fred Mr" <Fred.Dawson199 at mod.uk>
To: radsafe at radlab.nl; srp-uk at yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, 24 October, 2006 11:51:05 AM
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Men hooked on mobile phones may suffer a 40 per cent drop in fertility

Times reports - Men hooked on mobile phones may suffer a 40 per cent
drop in fertility

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2418475,00.html

Radiation is the likely cause, reports our correspondent from the
American Society for Reproductive Medicine

MEN who are heavy users of mobile phones have significantly lower sperm
counts than those who are not, according to research that suggests
radiation from handsets could be damaging male fertility. 
Both the quantity and quality of a man's sperm decline as his daily
mobile phone use increases, a study of 361 infertility patients in the
United States indicates. 

The greatest effects were seen among very heavy users who talked on a
mobile phone for more than four hours a day. They produced about 40 per
cent less sperm than men who never used a mobile phone at all. Smaller
falls in sperm count were also found among those who used the phones
less frequently. 
The findings, from a team led by Ashok Agarwal, of the Cleveland Clinic
in Ohio, could indicate that the electromagnetic fields generated by
mobile phone handsets are interfering with sperm production. 
Previous studies have shown that close and heavy exposure to this form
of radiation damages sperm in the laboratory, though an effect has never
been demonstrated convincingly outside this environment. 
Other researchers, however, cautioned that the study showed only an
association between mobile phone use and sperm counts, but established
no causal link. It was more likely that heavy phone use was linked to
another factor, such as stress or obesity, which was responsible for the
effect, they said. 
"The findings seem pretty robust, but I can only assume that mobile
phone use is a surrogate for something else," said Allan Pacey, senior
lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield. "If you are
holding it up to your head to speak a lot, it makes no sense it is
having a direct effect on your testes. 
"Maybe people who use a phone for four hours a day spend more time
sitting in cars, which could mean there's a heat issue. It could be they
are more stressed, or more sedentary and sit about eating junk food
getting fat. Those seem to be better explanations than a phone causing
the damage at such a great distance." 
Dr Agarwal, who presented the results yesterday at the American Society
for Reproductive Medicine conference in New Orleans, said that they were
worrying because of the wide extent of mobile phone use. "Almost a
billion people are using cell phones and the number is growing in many
countries at 20 to 30 per cent a year," Dr Agarwal said. 
"People use mobile phones without thinking twice what the consequences
may be. It is just like using a toothbrush but mobiles could be having a
devastating effect on fertility. It still has to be proved, but it could
have a huge impact because mobiles are so much part of our lives." 
In the study, 361 men whose sperm was being analysed before fertility
treatment were asked about their mobile phone use, and split into four
groups: those who never used a phone, those who used a phone for less
than two hours, two to four hours, and more than four hours a day. 
Median sperm counts were measured at 85.89 million per millilitre for
non-users, 69.03 million for the second group, 58.87 million for the
third and 50.30 million for the fourth. Sperm motility, or swimming
ability, also fell as phone use increased, as did other measures of
quality. 
"The main finding was that on all four parameters - sperm count,
motility, viability and morphology - there were significant differences
between the groups," Dr Agarwal said. "The greater the use of cell
phones, the greater the decrease in these four parameters. That was very
clear and very significant." 
The results are similar to a previous study by researchers at the
University of Szeged, in Hungary, which suggested a 30 per cent
reduction in sperm count among men who kept a mobile phone on standby in
their trouser pockets. The research, however, failed to control for
lifestyle. 
Such controls are important because sperm production is sensitive to a
number of factors, including obesity and heat: lorry drivers and
travelling salesmen, for example, tend to have low sperm counts because
the long hours that they spend sitting increases the temperature of
their testes. 
Dr Agarwal said that if the effect was caused by mobile phones, several
explanations were possible. Studies have shown that electromagnetic
fields can damage Leydig cells in the testes, and mobile phones are also
known to cause a heating effect on tissue that may be hazardous to
sperm. Both phenomena occur over short distances, so holding a phone to
the head while speaking should not be dangerous.

Fred Dawson

Fwp_dawson at hotmail.com

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