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Cell Phone Use May Be Bad For Your Sperm

imaginaryelf writes, "WebMD reports that researchers have found a link between hours of cell phone use and sperm quality. 'In a study led by researchers from The Cleveland Clinic, men who used their cell phones the most had poorer sperm quality than those who used them the least.' We Slashdotters know that correlation does not equal causation, so further research is needed to understand the link, but just in case, maybe men should cut back on the hours of cell phone use?"

120 comments

  1. Got it where it counts by Hillgiant · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey, what I lack in quality, I make up for in quantity.

    --
    -
    1. Re:Got it where it counts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps they should stop using their jock straps as cell phone pouches.

    2. Re:Got it where it counts by internetstruck · · Score: 0

      So you responded to those spam messages to get the increased l04ds too?

    3. Re:Got it where it counts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I can't seem to find anything wrong with my sperm. It's as green and solid as ever.

    4. Re:Got it where it counts by antoinjapan · · Score: 1

      Thank God for this, I keep running out of excuses to postpone the vasectomy.

    5. Re:Got it where it counts by Chemisor · · Score: 2, Funny

      I am sure you already have an impressive amount, after decades of savings and all...

    6. Re:Got it where it counts by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1

      I keep running out of excuses to postpone the vasectomy.

      Not sure about that; you would have to spend a lot of money on phone calls. A vasectomy might be cheaper... ;-)

  2. Bonus! by schmidtjas · · Score: 0

    My wife and I don't want any more children, so anything that makes that less likely sounds good to me.

    1. Re:Bonus! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      My wife and I don't want any more children, so anything that makes that less likely sounds good to me.
      Like cutting your dick off?
    2. Re:Bonus! by Hogwash+McFly · · Score: 1

      One would think that posting to Slashdot is protection enough :P

      --
      Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
  3. Easily solved by Robotech_Master · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'll just not let my sperm use the phone.

    --
    Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
    1. Re:Easily solved by Pharmboy · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hell, I was thinking that storing my cell phone in my underwear was a lot cheaper than condoms or birth control pills.

      Keeps the boys warm, too.

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    2. Re:Easily solved by gusmao · · Score: 1

      Man, if your sperm is able to get out of there, use your cellphone, set up a date, come back and finally get that ovum fertilized, you sure as hell can name your first kid McGyver.

  4. Like it matters... by aitikin · · Score: 4, Funny

    We'd need girlfriends/wives before it really mattered!

    --
    "Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
    1. Re:Like it matters... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly--unless you slashdorks are worried about getting your hand pregnant.

  5. Just speculating by plover · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Do you suppose it could have something to do with keeping your arm elevated for four hours per day holding up the phone? That's hardly healthy, and would certainly have circulatory impact.

    --
    John
    1. Re:Just speculating by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 1

      Keep yours in your arm, do you? That must complicate matters when you have to signal in traffic.

    2. Re:Just speculating by plover · · Score: 3, Interesting
      My point was this "study" was so incomplete as to be laughable. It was a questionaire, with people self-reporting phone habits. It could be anything from raised arms (which was a joke, virtually everyone who is on the phone 4+ hours per day has a handsfree setup) or that men who use the phone 4+ hours per day are statistically more likely to be 50-year-old travelling salesmen who have had vasectomies.

      This story should have been placed in the category of "It's pathetic, laugh."

      --
      John
    3. Re:Just speculating by MBCook · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The data also comes from a fertility clinic. They took a group of patients and asked them about their cell phone use. What are the chances that there is a correlation between the people showing up having good jobs? I'm guessing if you can afford to go to a fertility clinic, you're probably not poor. If you're not poor, you have job responsibilities. If you have job responsibilities, you may have a phone for it. And if the phone gives you stress.. then the phone is indirectly causing your problem.

      Is it something that correlates like that? Is it keeping your cellphone in your pocket? Is it just the fact that EVERYONE is using phones more and more theses days (and counts are dropping)?

      While interesting, this study is nothing but a "Isn't this weird? We should test this more."

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
    4. Re:Just speculating by da007 · · Score: 1


      It may also have something to do with keeping in in your pocket next to your genitals all day too.

    5. Re:Just speculating by Psychofreak · · Score: 1

      Maybe having a hands-free setup and having the transmitter by the "package" is a problem. Sperm are sensitive to temprature. Too high and they kick off.

      This still merits more investigation. The first step in infertility treatment is to check the man and his sperm. Self-reporting on habits is reasonable.

      Phil

      --
      Laugh, it's good for you!
    6. Re:Just speculating by rhfixer · · Score: 1
      Sperm are sensitive to temprature. Too high and they kick off.

      Wait... How do people who live in hot places reproduce? By mitotical process?

      Temperature can be one of the answers. It's known that professional drivers have problems with sperm... It's also known that people who use +4 hours their cellphones travell a lot and most of them are stressed to. I think it's not only the cellphone, but a combination of problems that degrade the sperm quality.
      --
      Hi.
    7. Re:Just speculating by cev · · Score: 1

      As an incidental result, I have IR imagery showing that your hand increases temperature by almost 0.5C if you hold it still for about two minutes. And yet, the authors conclude that your cell phone is increasing the temperature of your sperm significantly? Idiodcy!

      Let's do a simple analysis:
      Cell phone draws ~300 mA while in use. For conservative reasons, assume that this power is all RF. The battery is 3.6 V, so a total of 1W is being released by the phone. Since the antenna is nondirectional, the intensity of the phone is 0.08 Watts per steradian. Typical testacles are aprroximately 1 millsteradian (you do the math), so a total of 80 microwatts of power are being delivered in the direction of the talker's balls. Note that only a tiny fraction of that power is actually absorbed since people are essentially transparent to RF radiation. Since I know nothing about circulation, I can't convert that into a temperature difference. However, zero degrees seems like a pretty accurate guess. As a matter of comparison, the balls of a naked sunbather absorb over one watt of solar power from a zenith sun. Wearing shorts probably only reduces that by 90% or so.

      Looks like the authors need some more realistic theories:
      1. People who talk over four hours a day on the cell phone are coffee and alcohol-fueled stress buckets
      2. holding up the phone screws up circulation (good theory from Plover)
      3. Men talk on the cell phone becuase they are reproductively inadequate.

      CV

    8. Re:Just speculating by plover · · Score: 1
      Well, you didn't post your assumptions, and I figured the guy might have been wearing a Bluetooth headset with the transmitter hanging on his belt. So I did the math, too.

      I put the phone on his belt about 20cm from his pair of 30mm testes. (See, nip/tuck is good for some useful factoids -- Larry Hagman's character just had the oversized 40mm Magnum pair installed!) Those numbers yield a much more generous .0028 steradian target, for a total of 225 microwatts. That's almost four times your original 80 microwatt estimate.

      Of course we should still reduce that due to a few other factors. FCC regulations limit handheld cell transceivers to 600 mW max RF output. In order to conserve battery life cell phones adjust their transmission power based on the tower's reported reception, which means they're usually transmitting at less than max power. And even if the guy is a nonstop chatterbox, he's probably not talking 100% of the time; no sane human would ever voluntarily listen to someone talk on the phone for four straight hours every single day. He's probably getting no more than an hour of radiation on any given day. On the plus side, a cell antenna may not be perfectly omnidirectional and so may emit somewhat more radiation in the direction of his junk, depending on its orientation.

      I'm sure the net effect is still only to add an undetectable amount of heat to his coin-purse. But I don't think heat is the only factor governing sperm production. RF can generate electricity in a suitable conductor -- perhaps his veins or his urethra are the same length as the phone's wavelength, and so, acting as an antenna, they are generating tiny amounts of electricity that are affecting the nerves in his glands.

      Radiation-wise, it's definitely greater than zero, but is still an extremely low amount of power. The effects of long-term low-power RF radiation are still not fully understood (or even recognizable.) But it's useful to do the math anyway. :-)

      --
      John
  6. Ouch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    maybe men should cut back

    Does that make anyone else wince, even slightly?

  7. There's a correlation alright. by Who235 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think the kind of jerk who is always on a cell phone is the kind of jerk with low quality sperm to begin with.

    My sperm are the size of M&M's and they have teeth and can't be killed by conventional weapons. Do I use a cell phone all day?

    Hell no. If I want someone to know something, I punch it in Morse code right on their forehead.

    1. Re:There's a correlation alright. by Verteiron · · Score: 2, Funny

      You bastard, I just blew an unhealthy quantity of Coke right out my nose.

      --
      End of lesson. You may press the button.
    2. Re:There's a correlation alright. by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Funny
      You bastard, I just blew an unhealthy quantity of Coke right out my nose.

      What exactly is the U.S. RDA for expelling coca-cola through your nasal passages?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:There's a correlation alright. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I want someone to know something, I punch it in Morse code right on their forehead.

      *wonders why Who235 goes to 7-11 to get all his information*

    4. Re:There's a correlation alright. by giorgiofr · · Score: 1

      Chuck! I didn't know you visited /.!

      --
      Global warming is a cube.
    5. Re:There's a correlation alright. by The+One+and+Only · · Score: 1

      You're supposed to snort the coke up your nose!

      --
      In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
    6. Re:There's a correlation alright. by jb.hl.com · · Score: 1

      That's nothing. The GP can blow it out of other places too.

      --
      By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
    7. Re:There's a correlation alright. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Haha, Norris was my first thought too.

    8. Re:There's a correlation alright. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With all the uses of "jerk" and "sperm", you somehow missed a great joke.

      Also, you're the only response rated 5. I somehow feel sad for society at large.

    9. Re:There's a correlation alright. by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      The guy who is constantly on the the phone (cell or otherwise) is known as a woman. They do indeed have poor quality sperm.

  8. Of course... by Junta · · Score: 4, Funny

    A lack of quality sperm causes high cell phone usage!

    --
    XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    1. Re:Of course... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 1
      A lack of quality sperm causes high cell phone usage!
      Makes perfect sense to me. My daughter has no high-quality sperm (I hope -- and if she does, she didn't produce it and I don't want to know about it), and she's on the cell phone constantly.

      Just kidding. I don't have a daughter, I've been using my cell hpone too much for that to happen.
      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  9. Birth Control by spoonboy42 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Who needs a condom, I've always got my T610 in my jeans' pocket.

    --
    Anonymous Luddite: "What do you think of the dehumanizing effects of the Internet?"
    Andy Grove: "Not Much."
    1. Re:Birth Control by empaler · · Score: 1

      Well, seeing as it has the most important function of all here, Bluetooth, just get a headset and put the sucker in an obscure pocket or in your bag.

    2. Re:Birth Control by Volvogga · · Score: 1

      I think 'Free Night and Weekends' just took new meaning.

      --
      Vol~
    3. Re:Birth Control by chrisbtoo · · Score: 1

      And I thought you were just pleased to see me!

      --
      Registering accounts later than some other chrisb since 1997
  10. The real danger... by tverbeek · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm just afraid that teenage boys will read this and try using their cell phone as a contraceptive device. "Come on, babe, it's safe... you know I'm on the cell at least an hour a day..."

    --
    http://alternatives.rzero.com/
    1. Re:The real danger... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 1
      I'm just afraid that teenage boys will read this and try using their cell phone as a contraceptive device.
      Bad, bad visual.

      Though the vibrate setting may make up for the awkwardness.
      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  11. what abut the 900 calls by crodrigu1 · · Score: 0

    Therefore, you call one of those places that you can talk with chicks for 1 minute, and you do no get the chick and you hurt yourself doing so. Bummer

  12. Heh by RegalBegal · · Score: 1

    *spits out white russian* Increases! Let me tell you a little something about The Dude. ++ for the movie reference above. I have a conflict of interest you see, as I'm not a phone person.

    --
    "It'll destroy you if you try to make it mean anything to anyone but yourself." - Henry Rollins
  13. I have always wondered this by Tweekster · · Score: 1

    considering I keep my cellphone in my pants pocket most of the time.

    oh well

    --
    The phrase "more better" is acceptable English. suck it grammar Nazis
    1. Re:I have always wondered this by whoop · · Score: 1

      My phone's been in my pockets for the last 4 years. But the wife and I have had three kids in a little over two years. Go figure...

  14. the most important thing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    it still tastes the same

  15. the down side is? by mycroft822 · · Score: 1

    I'd prefer not to have some snot-nosed crying kid taking away form my /. time... ;)

  16. Nice! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    That's great. I'm going to have to purchase more minutes. I might even try to find a pair of pants with a cellphone pocket in the front.

    I've really got to get a hottub soon, too. I've wanted one of my own ever since the first time I got in one, but what REALLY sealed the deal for me was the fact that prolonged exposure to heat kills sperm. No wonder hottubs are an indispensable portion of the Californian lifestyle; if you're going to have a ton of hot sex, it's a good idea to be infertile.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:Nice! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Word.

      If you can get a pair of underwear that has a pocket for the cellphone right up front there, you can set the phone on vibrate and kill two birds with one stone!

    2. Re:Nice! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if you're going to have a ton of hot sex, it's a good idea to be infertile.

      Maybe you should pass that info along to some of the immigrants.

    3. Re:Nice! by rhfixer · · Score: 1

      ...You could sell them cellphones too! Think about it! You'll be getting a lot of profit from them, and you're getting rid of them in the long term!
      --
      Now the Vatican is going to forbid cellphones.

      --
      Hi.
    4. Re:Nice! by Tarlus · · Score: 1

      "I might even try to find a pair of pants with a cellphone pocket in the front."

      Is that a phone or are you just happy to see me?

      --
      /* No Comment */
  17. For the better by bdigit · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Perhaps some of those people who are on their cellphone 8 hours a day should not be reproducing anyway

    1. Re:For the better by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 1

      I was hoping for a more immediate process. At least the driving while cell-phoning statistics give me hope that Darwin's work will be somewhat effective during my lifetime. The other hope (microwave radiation causing brain cancer) seems to be pretty iffy based on current research.

      Meanwhile work on an EMP weapon that causes operating cell phones to explode continues apace.

      Bwahahahahaha from deep inside the volcano lab is heard.....

    2. Re:For the better by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Perhaps some of those people who are on their cellphone 8 hours a day should not be reproducing anyway

      I've only seen a few of these types of men, usually with a bluetooth headset, and they've tended to be, well, more towards the girly side of the bell curve.

      There may be a gruff, burly man who likes to chat on the phone but I haven't met him.

      Just from observation, hormone levels are more likely to be causative here that non-ionizing RF.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  18. Using it wrong by booch · · Score: 1

    If your use of the cell phone is affecting your sperm count, perhaps you're using it wrong.

    Hmm, I wonder if it's actually using the cell phone that's the problem, or the fact that I carry the phone around in my pants pocket. I suppose I'm sending my little swimmers micro-doses of microwave radiation. Or perhaps it's that more use means more ringing, which causes more radiation while still in the pocket. Personally, I suspect that those heavy cell phone users already had low sperm counts.

    I wonder if in addition to sperm count/"quality", if it increases genertic mutations within the sperm cells. That would seem to be a much bigger societal health concern.

    --
    Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
  19. Birth Defects by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

    Not to mention that "low quality" could very well mean sperm with damaged DNA, but still alive and mobile. That's worse than having no sperm at all, IMO.

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  20. Ow! My sperm! by McGregorMortis · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bender: "What should we point it at first?"
    Fry: "I dunno. Try it on me!" *zap* "Ow! My sperm!"
    Bender: "Wow! Neat! Mind if I try that again?" *zap*
    Fry: "Huh, didn't hurt that time."

  21. The direct link by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 4, Funny

    I know it'll be bad for the one obnoxious cellphone dude who takes the same bus as me, since I'm just three more 50 Cent ringtones away from kicking him sqare in the junk.

  22. New nutrition guidelines... by Kadin2048 · · Score: 1

    Due to intense lobbying by the Coca-Cola corporation, I believe it counts as your choice of either a serving of vegetables, or 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise.

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
  23. Damnit! by Karganeth · · Score: 2, Funny

    I knew I shouldn't have let my sperm use cellphones... :(

  24. Wait a minute... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you use your cellphone a lot, that would probably mean it's more often next to your ear than in your pocket. Yet if you don't use your cellphone a lot, it would just be in your pocket all day.

    But by that analogy it would mean that *using* your cellphone actually saves your balls! So how come the article states the exact opposite?

    1. Re:Wait a minute... by rtconner · · Score: 1

      I was wondering the same thing.

      --
      023AD01("Child", "Evil");
  25. Zune and iPod Usage May Be Bad For Your Sperm by SuperStretch · · Score: 0

    That explains so much! And here I thought it was a fundamental problem with their personality!

    --
    Help me get a new laptop - http://nocreditcard.yourgiftsfree.com/?id=3012
  26. Irony? by ClamIAm · · Score: 1

    Let's think about this for a minute. If a man is on his cell phone for hours per day, who exactly is he talking to? It's probably, uh, his girlfriend/wife.

  27. Insert joke here!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most of the people I've seen who are constantly on the phone are dicks anyway, so this study goes without saying...

    Wait.. what?

  28. Oh, great timing by Dark+Paladin · · Score: 1

    And I just got my vasectomy. *Now* I learn the cheaper/less painful way.

  29. Big Deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It really doesn't mean much, since most of us slashdotters will never make use of it anyways.

    1. Re:Big Deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use it every day. It makes a great moisturizer, and goes great on crackers. Mine can even be used to patch bicycle tires.

  30. Disrupts electronics and my nuts by shawn443 · · Score: 1

    When I first got my cell phone, I would notice periodically that monitors would flicker, radios shout static, and lights would sometimes dim. I soon tracked this behavior to whenever my phone would check for new emails, update its clock, or right before an incoming call. Thinking of this electronic phenomenon and the fact the phone was cozily hugging my nuts in my front jeans pocket, I bought a little phone holster and set it on my hip. Do you think I'm being paranoid?

    1. Re:Disrupts electronics and my nuts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know about being overprotective, but try setting one of those phones down next to a CRT monitor - it's like dropping a rock in psychedelic water! *WAY* more chaotic of an effect than the degauss coils will provide.

      Not all cell phones do this, mind you, but it's a little creepy watching those that do.

    2. Re:Disrupts electronics and my nuts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My sperm often flickers and emits static when my phone rings. My monitor and radio, not so much.

    3. Re:Disrupts electronics and my nuts by Epsilon+Plus · · Score: 1

      My monitor dosen't do that, but my speakers and subwoofer all go "hssssh tk tk tk tk" when a call's incoming and "tick tktktktktktk tick tktkhssssh tick" while a call's being made. I carry my phone in my backpack, a good two feet away from my nuts. So, no, you're not paranoid.

  31. Article points out correlation, not causation. by autophile · · Score: 1
    The article is very quick to point out that just because a correlation was shown does not mean a causation was proven. One example is that a person on a cell four hours a day could also be very sedentary, which could also lead to low sperm count and/or low sperm mobility. So props to the BBC for publishing an article not all breathless and hysterical.

    --Rob

    --
    Towards the Singularity.
  32. Nothing to See Here by KermodeBear · · Score: 1
    From TFA (emphasis mine):

    There just might be a connection between a suspected decline in male fertility and increased cell phone use, but experts say much more research is needed to confirm an association.
    So, there might be a connection? A suspected decline? They don't even know if the decline is real? This is an article about nothing.
    --
    Love sees no species.
    1. Re:Nothing to See Here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suspect this possible article may be about an undeterminable something, but experts say an indefinite amount of research might be needed to confirm a possibility.

  33. Data Center, Radio Station Cell Phone by Fonce · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure the thousands of hours I have in the data center and at the radio station inside their respective effective faraday cages have had much, much more effect on my little guys' triathalon abilities than using my cell phone has.

    Nothing will fry your junk better than having huge EMF-emitting devices surrounding your crotchal region for eight hours a day, six days a week.

    --
    If all my base are belong to you and I attempt to retrieve my base, does that mean I'm freebasing?
  34. Our Precious Bodily Fluids are at Risk! by spun · · Score: 1

    "Do I look all rancid and clotted? You look at me, Jack. Eh? Look, eh? And I talk a lot on the cell phone. I'm what you might call a cell phone man, Jack - that's what I am. And I can swear to you, my boy, swear to you, that there's nothing wrong with my bodily fluids. Not a thing, Jackie."

    -- With apologies to Lionel Mandrake

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  35. Off-topic: Vasectomy by empaler · · Score: 1

    Depending on the type of vasectomy, you might want to check up on whether it has worked as it ought. Some types are prone to failure.

    1. Re:Off-topic: Vasectomy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm betting he got the kind where they cut you open and SLICE THROUGH YOUR SPERM TUBES.

    2. Re:Off-topic: Vasectomy by kevinl · · Score: 1

      Still off-topic...

      They actually remove a small section, and cauterize the ends! The crackling noises and smoke rising from one's nether regions during this procedure are very disconcerting.

      No, I'm not kidding. But the worst part is those few seconds between jamming the needle into your sack and the local anesthetic kicking in. It's like being kicked by a lumberjack with steel-toed boots.

      That sucks when they do the first side, and sucks more when the realization that you have a second ball slowly materializes...

    3. Re:Off-topic: Vasectomy by Guido69 · · Score: 1

      ...and you forgot about the little titanium clips they put on either side of the cut now as well.

      Only thing that made up for the whole experience was the wash and shave job by the nurses aide before. If I could get her again would *almost* consider going through it a second time.

      --
      - If we aren't supposed to eat animals, then why are they made out of meat? - Steven Wright
    4. Re:Off-topic: Vasectomy by georgeha · · Score: 1

      you must have great insurance, I had to shave myself, with the urologist finishing the job (because the directions weren't clear). We did have a nice talk about Palm VII wireless as he was slicing and burning me.

  36. who cares? by coastwalker · · Score: 1

    Theres enough people walking about the place already - crank the power up and fry a few adults, never mind their sperm I say! Why is it that the human race is intent on messing the place up by over breeding and screwing up the planet with waste. Six billion ought to be enough of anything, even Natalie Portmans with hot grits, well maybe six billion of those would be ok. Its just not good enough blaming it on someone else, "God made me do it" is not an excuse and "I did it to get housing benefit" is just insane. And whats with the Eco freaks - their more likely than anybody to be chilling out with a large brood of bearded be-sandled offspring.

      Mobil phones use verses sperm count is just so hugely ridiculously unbelievably trivial that I cant believe you haven't all gone and died of diminished brain function in the middle of last night. What is spectacularly obvious is that the odds of being killed in an automobile accident before you can fire off those sperm and add to the mountains of flesh tramping over the planet are magnitudes higher.

    And whilst your at it take up smoking and help clear a bit more space for the coming generations.

    --
    Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
  37. Especially when.... by hcob$ · · Score: 1
    Cell Phone Use May Be Bad For Your Sperm
    Espescially when you end up T-boning an 18-wheeler cause you couldn't stop calling Pairs Hilton's Voice Mail.
    --
    Cliff Claven
    K.E.G. Party Chairman
    Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
  38. "Cell Phone Use May Be Bad For Your Sperm" by Anti_Climax · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's fine, I wasn't using it anyway.

    --
    Even people that believe in pre-destiny look both ways before crossing the street.
  39. And if this later found to be a cause... by blindd0t · · Score: 1

    ...how would that be a bad thing? My wife never needs to know I said that. ^_^ (and that was a rhetorical question)

  40. This just in by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Having a vasectomy may be bad for your sperm.

  41. A dose of coke through the nose by tepples · · Score: 3, Funny
    What exactly is the U.S. RDA for expelling coca-cola through your nasal passages?

    I don't know about Coke out, but a dose of coke in is about 50 mg.

  42. Treo?? by Lally+Singh · · Score: 1

    Is that a treo in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

    Yeah, it's a treo. Condoms are expensive.

    --
    Care about electronic freedom? Consider donating to the EFF!
  43. Dr. Strangelove! For those who don't recognize. by CyberLord+Seven · · Score: 1

    Wish I had mod points. :)

    --
    We have always been at war with Eurasia!
  44. Take that South Dakota! by TheSam · · Score: 1

    Cell phones: the new birth control!

  45. So um... by Arceliar · · Score: 1, Interesting

    ..would this make it a bad idea to dial the phone with your testicles?

    1. Re:So um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bad idea or not, it's not stopping me.

    2. Re:So um... by 4D6963 · · Score: 1

      I wish I could somehow meta-moderate Funny the guy who modded this Interesting.

      --
      You just got troll'd!
  46. At risk...by the cell phone companies! by Jess+(geek-chick) · · Score: 1

    I can no longer sit back and allow Cell Phone Company infiltration, Cell Phone Company indoctrination, Cell Phone Company subversion, and the international Cell Phone Company conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

    --
    If anyone needs me, I'll be in the Angry Dome.
    1. Re:At risk...by the cell phone companies! by jamstar7 · · Score: 1
      I can no longer sit back and allow Cell Phone Company infiltration, Cell Phone Company indoctrination, Cell Phone Company subversion, and the international Cell Phone Company conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

      Send Code FGD-135 immediately. Wing Attack Plan R. Repeat. Wing Attack Plan R.

      --
      Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
  47. Elucidating by reference to Cell Phone Warrantee by NRAdude · · Score: 0

    The manual that accompanies a Cell Phone, usually not including that actual Service Contract, is required a clause or statement near the end or Directory Listing that default dis-claims with prejudice of the FCC that of all the possible harm that is self-same disclosed to whomever makes use of the Cell Phone will not hold liable medical costs or recompense to damage from the FCC or the Manufacturer or related owners of said patents and copyrights ensigned upon the property.

    In other words, their rate of disclosure of all the ill-health nigh experimental communications errata cause, is met with "harmless" improper amendments to the verry contract limiting the sale of said property. It's as though they are psycopathic lawyers performing surgery on your ears, and expecting you to have hearing for matters of damage they had evidence and knowledge before disclosure but decided naught to disclose in fear of no Consideration and no Satisfaction to enter the same Cell Phone use and Service.

    If there were a nuclear-powered Oven used to cook food, would they sell per contract to "cook food quicker" to the satisfaction of the owner and then modify their reservations in the contract to the incompetance of the owner to deflect or refuse said alleged "amendments" that do more to change the intent than to ammend (correct)?

    A bullet isn't even advertised to kill, because it is the people that determine the intent of the bullet. Yet, a Cell Phone is poorly designed to communicate, while causing all kinds of collateral damage that are known but not disclosed in the original contract and note, and assumed to accept all alleged corrections (amendments). Entering a restaraunt is to be satisfied to eat food at a restaraunt, whereas this is no different than forced to accept and agree to a contract before leaving the restraunt with the assimilated food.

    I hope the people return to extend the abilities of Citizens Band radio, for moderate-distance local chat procedures of a terminal, relay of communications in the form of free and independent postal stations, and other capabilities.

    This is same as confusing the people to think that Fluoride in the water is healthy, when in fact Fluoride itself is poisonous while Calcium Fluoride is the original intent scrapped in order to secure the medical services to treat whomever is involed with the pains hidden by Fluoride itself.

    --
    without prejudice
  48. frequency matters by Quadraginta · · Score: 1

    Don't be so sure. The frequency of the photons matters a lot. That's why a bright day's sunlight turned into X or gamma rays will kill you dead.

    It would be strange indeed if FM radio waves, which have a very low energy per photon, could do any serious harm to a body. Little in our body resembles an antenna big enough to download them. Cell phone waves are much higher frequency, of course, but exposure to them is still nothing like our daily exposure to visible, IR, UV, radio and every other photonimal in the electromagnetic zoo from old Sol overhead.

    1. Re:frequency matters by Fonce · · Score: 1

      While I won't argue with the fact that FM waves do, in fact, have a much lower energy quotient per photon, I'm sitting very close to a transmitter. In fact, if I lean my chair back, I can touch the transmitter. Turning the lights off in this particular room does little good, as the energy from the transmitter will keep them lit. It's not quite as bright, but they're still probably at 75% brightness with the switch off.

      You'll be hard pressed to convince me that sitting in here almost 50 hours a week isn't having some sort of effect on my body.

      At the same time, like you said, our good buddy Sol provides us with a barrage of magnetic waves. We're used to that by now, and have likely adapted to it over the centuries. But, take that and add the four computers/monitors, plus the transmitter and some short-wave radios and I'm getting a higher dose than most people do; it's not like I'm just out in the open in the way of weaker waves, I'm literally inches from the source. I'm willing to bet that, over time, that adds up to something.

      That lights-always-on thing is what bugs me, though. It's really creepy.

      --
      If all my base are belong to you and I attempt to retrieve my base, does that mean I'm freebasing?
    2. Re:frequency matters by Quadraginta · · Score: 1

      Well...first of all, if your physiology is well-adapted to the radio waves from the Sun, why would the radio waves coming from the transmitter matter? Same photons, right? The Sun has generated plenty of radio all its life -- if we turn the receiver to a "blank" spot on the spectrum and turn the squelch off we can easily hear old Sol crackling and sputtering away in the radio spectrum.

      Secondly, one of the weirdnesses about quantum mechanics and chemistry that may be tripping us up here is this: photons have to be above a certain energy threshold to cause a chemical reaction (which is what we're fearing here, a chemical reaction in a cell that does something bad, like mutating a gene in a piece of DNA). And if the photons are below the energy threshold, nothing happens, no matter how many of them there are. It isn't like a million low-energy photons can "add up" to one high-energy photon, because the electronic transition that has to happen to get the reaction going has to happen all at once, by absorbing one photon. It can't happen a little bit at a time, by absorbing many small photons -- that's what makes the whole business "quantum."

      I'm not saying I wouldn't move my chair away from the beast as far as I could, or stay in that room my entire career, but I wouldn't worry about it too much over the short term. After all, every one of us modern humans typically spends his entire day inside a building -- i.e. inside a giant wire cage radiating 60 Hz radio energy -- instead of outside. We ride several times a year above most of the atmosphere in airplanes, exposing ourselves to extremely high-energy cosmic radiation. We breathe all kinds of interestingly reactive compounds of nitrogen and oxygen from engine exhaust all day and night. It probably does, in the end, add up to something, and probably we die of this instead of that somewhat more often than our ancestors did. But, well, no one gets out alive anyway. Chances are probably very good that something mundane like cholesterol or a drunk driver will get you before the radio waves do...if that's any consolation.

  49. Fixed Men's Club of America by GuruBuckaroo · · Score: 1

    President and Founder, right here. Vasectomy - the gift that keeps on giving.

    --
    Poor means hoping the toothache goes away.
  50. Well in this case... by joto · · Score: 1

    ...I am willing to assume that correlation equals causation. It is now proven: Men with low sperm-quality talk more on the phone than men with good sperm-quality. Women (who doesn't even have sperm), talk even more!

  51. One of them a redhead? by everphilski · · Score: 1

    Might wanna take a good hard look at them sometime :)

  52. Planet by Tekoneiric · · Score: 1

    Given the number of people on this planet and the resource drain we cause, is this a bad thing?

    --
    *It's not what you can do for the Dark Side but what the Dark Side can do for you!*
  53. logical phallacy by orgelspieler · · Score: 1

    This brings new meaning to the phrase "cum hoc ergo propter hoc."

  54. Heh! Heh! Heh! (Wrings hands for effect) by smchris · · Score: 1

    How many old people do you see with cell phones?

    Now you know why they call it generational warfare.
    You've all fallen into our clever plan.

  55. Now they tell me... by jamesh · · Score: 1

    ... after 4 kids :) 2 of which were conceived whilst on the waiting list for 'the snip'. There's no such thing as an emergency vasectomy apparently.

    Still... you've got to wonder what kind of kinky phone sex would be involved to actually have radiation reach the testes in any quantity. "My penis would like a word with you... i'll put him on".

  56. Obligatory Achewood... by MS-06FZ · · Score: 1

    http://achewood.com/index.php?date=05192006

    Don't miss the "vestigal dong" story this kicked off...

    --
    ---GEC
    I'm but the humble pupil, seeking to snatch the scratchbuilt pebble from the master's fully articulated hand
  57. Re:Data Center, Radio Station Cell Phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, nothing will fry your junk better than falling into a campfire because you were too busy talking on that cell phone to watch where you were walking.

  58. Age? by jrvz · · Score: 1

    I didn't see anything about controlling for age. I would expect age to be correlated with wealth, and cellphone time, and fertility problems.

  59. Will the studies never end? by Fastolfe · · Score: 1

    It seems like someone does a study that supports conclusion A, and then everyone says, "But we really need more studies to be sure." So then more studies come out, and now one supports B, but everyone follows it up with, "But we really need more studies to be sure."

    Contrary to what people seem to think, we actually have an excellent understanding of electromagnetic radiation and its effects on biological tissue. This knowledge is the foundation of things such as the microwave oven and X-ray and MRI imaging. Now, I'm all for questioning what we think we know, in the name of science, but at some point you have to wonder if all of these studies are fueled by ignorant fear and not out of a desire for good science.

  60. I don't see a problem here. by sdaemon · · Score: 1

    So the people who use their cellphones all the time will be unable, or at least less likely, to reproduce?

    Huzzah!

    Natural selection is alive and well, it seems :)

  61. That's Nothing by Aqua_boy17 · · Score: 1

    I've got a RAZR in mine! Oh, wait...

    --
    What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?
  62. Now that's good science! by Overzeetop · · Score: 1

    What's the chance of having an unusually high percentage of males at a fertility clinic with poor sperm quality? Couldn't have seen that one coming. (Sorry, I didn't really mean it like that...)

    --
    Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
  63. Ask me about my Weiner by jeremyclark13 · · Score: 1

    Nevermind I'll let you talk to him yourself....

    Maybe it's not such a good idea after all.

    May I take a message?

    --
    Don't you hate glorious self-promotion? Visit my Blog