Study Links Cellphone Use to Lower Sperm Count, but Authors Downplay Findings

Men who frequently use their cellphones may suffer from lower sperm counts than those who do not, according to a new Swiss study that adds to the mounting body of evidence showing a link between cellphone use and decreased male fertility.

The study found that men who used their phones more than 20 times a day had significantly lower sperm counts and decreased sperm concentrations — two critical measures of male fertility — than men who used their phones just once a week.

These men had roughly 21% higher risk of sperm counts and 30% higher risk of sperm concentrations falling below the World Health Organization’s reference values for fertile men.

The authors of the study — which tracked the health data and cellphone usage data of 2,886 young men from 2005 to 2018 — said the link between cellphone use and lower sperm counts was “more pronounced in the first period of the study (2005 and 2007) and decreased progressively over the subsequent time periods (2008–2011 and 2012–2018).”

They attributed the differences to newer wireless technologies, which they said emit less radiofrequency (RF) radiation.

Experts like Lennart Hardell, M.D., Ph.D., a world-leading scientist on cancer risks from radiation, took issue with the authors’ suggestion that newer wireless technologies emit less radiation.

“The authors gave an overgeneralized explanation that conveniently suited wireless companies’ interests,” Hardell told The Defender.

Hardell, an oncologist and epidemiologist with the Environment and Cancer Research Foundation who has authored more than 350 papers, almost 60 of which address the topic of RF radiation, said he disagreed with statements made by Martin Rӧӧsli, Ph.D., one of the study authors and an associate professor in epidemiology and public health at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute.

Rӧӧsli told Forbes the link between phone use and sperm counts lessened over time periods corresponding to the transition from 2G to 3G networks and from 3G to 4G networks because the newer networks “led to a reduction in the transmitting power of phones.”

If the amount of power — as in energy — is lower, that would mean people’s exposure to RF radiation would be lower.

Rajeev Singh, Ph.D., an environmental science professor at the University of Delhi who studies the impacts of RF radiation and electromagnetic fields (EMF) on male reproductive health, also disagreed with the study authors’ argument that newer phones emit less power.

In February, Singh and other researchers published a review of 168 studies, many recent, that found RF radiation had negative impacts on male reproductive health.