Teenagers, young men warned of laptop health risk
09 Dec 2004 00:00:49 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Teenagers and young men should keep their laptops off
their laps because they could damage fertility, an expert said on Thursday.
Laptops, which reach high internal operating temperatures, can heat up the
scrotum which could affect the quality and quantity of men's sperm.
"The increase in scrotal temperature is significant enough to cause changes in
sperm parameters," said Dr Yefim Sheynkin, an associate professor of urology at
the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
"It is very difficult to predict how long the computer can be used safely," he
told Reuters. "It may not be at all, if the testicular temperature goes up high
within a very short period of time."
Adolescents and young men who use laptops several times a day over many years
face the greatest risk. Sheynkin fears that if laptop use is not curtailed, in
15-20 years when they want to start a family the men could face problems.
"Long-term use may have a detrimental effect on their reproductive health," he
said.
Sheynkin and his team studied the impact of using a laptop on 29 healthy
volunteers between the age of 21-35 by measuring scrotal temperature before and
after they used a computer on their lap.
The research is reported in the journal Human Reproduction.
Even without turning the laptop on, the scrotal temperature rose by 2.1 degrees
Centigrade when the young men sat with their thighs together to balance the
computer on their lap.
When they switched it on the temperature rose -- by 2.8 degrees C on the right
side and 2.6 degrees C on the left.
"It shows that scrotal hyperthermia is produced by both special body posture
and the local heating effect of laptop computers," Sheynkin said.
A serious case of laptop burn was reported in a letter published in a medical
journal two years ago after a 50-year-old man burned his penis while using a
laptop balanced on his legs for an hour, despite wearing trousers and
underpants.
The researchers used two different brands of computers in the study.
"All laptop computers generate significant heat due to the increasing power
requirements of computer chips. New laptops with higher power requirements may
produce even more heat," Sheynkin added.
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| User: "Michael Johnathan McDonald" |
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| Title: Re: Teenagers, young men warned of laptop health risk |
10 Dec 2004 04:53:53 PM |
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More PC crap - if you are too lame to feel the heat of the processor on
your balls you have no reason to even own one. ;)
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| User: "Michael Johnathan McDonald" |
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| Title: Re: Teenagers, young men warned of laptop health risk |
10 Dec 2004 05:07:58 PM |
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Tony, tell anyone to get a Pentium M processor - run allot cooler.
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| User: "Tadapope" |
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| Title: Re: Teenagers, young men warned of laptop health risk |
10 Dec 2004 07:11:14 PM |
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Surely this problem has been corrected with the Neutrino technology!
Tangents are infinite in all of nature in
all universes constantly and at random.
* D OUOSVAVV M *
Oh Joy!
Tom
The Psychedelic Pope
Patron Saint of the Internet
http://www.apple2.org.za/gswv/me/
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| User: "WH" |
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| Title: Re: Teenagers, young men warned of laptop health risk |
10 Dec 2004 04:48:21 PM |
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You'de better keep your laptop off of your six incher then hadn't you
pantyboy...although you probably don't use it very often these days!
WH
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