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Sunday, November 15, 2009

Stolen Content - The best excuse ever!!!!!

Dangerous work: Home chores could reduce a man's fertility

It's the get-out clause work-shy husbands have been praying for for years.

A study has found that household chores – including using a vacuum cleaner or microwave oven – could reduce a man’s chances of having children.

Researchers exposed male volunteers to electromagnetic fields – high doses of which are produced by all electrically charged objects, including refrigerators and vacuum cleaners – and found such exposure could double the risk of having poor-quality sperm.

Fertility expert Dr De-Kun Li said his work provides the first evidence of a link between electrical goods and declining male fertility.

Dr Li, of Stanford University, California, said: ‘I would advise men and couples trying for a baby to reduce their exposure to electromagnetic fields as much as possible.

‘I’m not saying you shouldn’t use a microwave but it makes sense to turn it on, then move away and go back when it is done. Keep devices, especially those with electric motors, away from the body.’

The study recruited 148 donors at a sperm bank in Shanghai. Tests showed that 76 had poor sperm mobility, shape or count, while 72 had good-quality sperm.

Those volunteers whose job involved working with high temperatures or being exposed to chemicals linked to sperm damage such as solvents and pesticides were excluded.

Participants were asked to wear meters which took readings of magnetic fields every four seconds for 24 hours on days they considered ‘typical’.

They found that the half of the group who had peak readings above 0.16 microtesla – a measure of magnetic field strength – were twice as likely to have low sperm quality as those with readings below this level.

Dr Li’s team also revealed that the chances of having poor sperm quality increased as the time exposed to higher-strength magnetic fields rose.

He said of the research, due to be published in January in the journal Reproductive Toxicology:

‘This is the first study to show a link between measured electromagnetic fields and poor semen quality in humans, which may provide a logical explanation for why we have seen reductions in sperm quality in men over the past century.’

Although the study did not look at what was producing the magnetic fields, electrical appliances – especially those containing motors such as hairdryers – produce high frequencies and therefore strong magnetic fields.

In previous studies, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, a poor diet, drug use and obesity have all been shown to reduce sperm count.

Dr Allan Pacey, of the British Fertility Society and a fertility researcher at Sheffield University, said: ‘I believe there might be something in it.

‘If these results are repeated in a bigger study, we need to start thinking seriously about promoting advice about avoiding exposure.’