Part 2: Growing Concern about Electromagnetic Pollution and Cell Phones.

“Cell phones could cause harmful effects due to the proximity of the phones and the exposure that they are causing to the gonads (affecting sperm).”

- Ashok Agarwal, M. D., Cleveland Clinic

Cell Phone Use Linked to Male Infertility
Hands-Free Calls May Expose Sperm to Radiation
By Denise Mann

“Sept. 19, 2008 -- Men, beware: Using a hands-free device with a cell phone may affect your fertility if you keep your phone close to your testicles, Cleveland Clinic researchers warn in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

Men who use these hands-free devices tend to carry their cell phones in their pants pocket or clipped to their belts at the waist while in talk mode. As a result, they may be exposing their testicles to damaging radio frequency electromagnetic waves, explains Ashok Agarwal, Ph.D., head of the Andrology Laboratory and the Director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine at the Glickman Urologoical and Kidney Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

‘The Bluetooth devices, which many people are using these days because of health or safety concerns, may not be always so safe. There is a downside,’ he says.

Cell Phone Radiation Affects Sperm Quality
To arrive at their findings, researchers collected semen samples from 32 men and divided each man's sample into two parts. They placed half of the semen samples 2.5 centimeters away from a 850 MHz frequency cell phone in talk mode for one hour. Most cell phones used in the U.S. are 850-900 MHz. They chose this distance because it is the typical distance between the testes and the trouser pockets.”

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September 25, 2008  Washington, D. C. - On September 19, 2008, the published research of Ashok Agarwal, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Reproductive Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio made national and international headlines. This was Dr. Agarwal's second study of cell phone radiation on sperm and he reported: “On average, there was an 85% increase in the amount of free radicals for all the subjects in the study. Free radicals have been linked to decreased sperm quality in previous studies.” In another study, Dr. Agarwal found that 361 men who used their cell phones more than four hours a day had significantly lower sperm quality than those who used their cell phones for less time.