Report: Wireless Net Surfing Reduces Men's Sterility
Too much of cigarette smoking and alcohol intake, according to health experts, reduce men's ability to reproduce and now, gadget usage has been recently identified as another factor in damaging sperm's quality.
According to Reuters, men who frequently log on the internet using Wi-Fi capable laptops are in danger diminishing the strength of their semen as suggested by a new study recently published by the Fertility & Sterility journal.
The findings were based on experiments conducted on 29 healthy males, who were made to contribute semen samples that were then placed under a laptop - powered on and connected wirelessly to the internet.
Researchers then waited four hours and discovered that 25 percent of the sperm samples appeared to have died out and stopped swimming while another nine percent were found to have developed DNA irregularities.
On the other hand, samples that were left sitting near a laptop - also functioning but offline - sustained minimal damages.
Researchers said that electronic radiation emitted by wireless devices appears to be the major culprit though they admitted it was not determined if its damaging effects were confined to laptop or includes other gadgets that connect wirelessly.
"Our data suggest that the use of a laptop computer wirelessly connected to the Internet and positioned near the male reproductive organs may decrease human sperm quality," Reuters quoted the study report as saying.
The report was released following an earlier study this November that suggest laptop usage of more than 10 minutes, placed above the knees, could considerably decrease man's sperm count as the heat generated by the device could increase the testicle's temperature to alarming level.
And to achieve maximum fertility, the American Urological Association said that a man should have at least 70 million sperm per millimetre, achievement of which is a prevailing problem for many Americans.
Studies suggest that much of these issues were brought by environmental and health factors and with the emergence of technological concerns, experts said that apart from making wise decisions that affect out health, it would be prudent to surf the internet with a laptop sitting on the desk.