Laptop a threat to family plans

Teenagers and young men who want to have a family one day would be well advised to keep their laptop computers not on their laps but firmly on the desk, a study suggests.

Laptops, which reach high internal operating temperatures, can heat up the scrotum, which could affect the quality and quantity of 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 said. "It may not be [long] at all, if the testicular temperature goes up high within a very short period of time."

Adolescents and young men who use laptops daily over many years face the greatest risk. Sheynkin fears if laptop use is not curtailed, in 15 to 20 years when they want to start a family 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 ages of 21 and 35, measuring scrotal temperature before and after participants used a computer on their lap. The research is reported in the journal Human Reproduction.

Even without turning the laptop on, scrotal temperature rose by 2.1C when the men sat with their thighs together to balance the computer on their lap.

When they switched it on the temperature rose - by 2.8C on the right side and 2.6C 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 in a medical journal two years ago. A man, fully clothed, burned his penis while using a laptop balanced on his legs for an hour.

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," Sheynkin said.

- Reuters