Study links cellphones to male fertility problems: Findings come amid Congressional hearings on the topic

Researchers at Cleveland Clinic said they found a link between cellphone radiation and male fertility problems, fresh scientific data that surfaced in advance of a congressional hearing on a long-running health controversy that mobile-phone carriers cannot shake – despite having kept such litigation in check for more than a decade.
“We wanted to identify why cellphone use and decreased sperm quality appear to be related, so we devised a research protocol that could be done completely in the lab, thus not harming participants while getting more objective results,” said Dr. Ashok Agarwal, head of the Andrology Laboratory and the director of Center for Reproductive Medicine at the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute, who led the study.
Agarwal and his research team’s results were published in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
“We never imagined that we’d identify a causal link so clearly in our initial study design, so we’re happy that this research has provided clean data to fuel future research and discussion in this area,” Agarwal stated.
Agarwal’s previous study, published in Fertility and Sterility last year, used self-reported data from 361 subjects and found that men who used their mobile phones more than several hours a day had significantly lower sperm quality than those who used their handsets less. The 2007 study did not identify a possible cause, however, prompting follow-up work that resulted in the latest research.
Health officials here and overseas say research to date indicates mobile phones do not pose a health threat to users, which number more than 3 billion worldwide, but they support further scientific investigation in light of studies that have shown adverse biological effects from low-level radiation. Some European officials have recommended limiting cellphone use by children as a precautionary measure. Most wireless health research is being conducted overseas, with results of the 13-nation Interphone study possibly due out before year’s end.
While the health issue continues to rage in scientific circles, it has gradually died down in the courts.
The mobile-phone industry has managed to escape unscathed – except for cost of litigation itself – in health-related wireless litigation since the early 1990s when a lawsuit unsuccessfully claimed cellphone use caused a brain tumor that killed a Florida woman.
Six brain cancer lawsuits against the cellular industry dismissed on jurisdictional grounds by the Superior Court for the District of Columbia remain hung up in the D.C. Appeals Court. A class-action lawsuit claiming the wireless industry should have warned consumers about possible health risks from cellphones is pending in the D.C. Superior Court, which is awaiting an appeals court decision on the six brain cancer suits before moving forward.
A separate health suit is playing out in California federal court against T-Mobile USA Inc., Motorola Inc. and Samsung Telecommunications America Inc. Motorola earlier this month asked the court to throw out the case.
On Thursday, the House Government Oversight and Reform subcommittee on domestic policy will hear expert testimony on peer-reviewed scientific research on whether an association exists between mobile phones and cancer. It is the first congressional hearing in 15 years on the topic.