ABSTRACT

Humans in modern society are exposed to an ever-increasing number of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) generated from the production and supply of electricity, television sets, personal computer (PC), radio communication, and mobile communication, hence, it has become a public health issue.  This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emitted from new generation laptop computers on sperm quality and reproductive hormone of male albino rats. Thirty male albino rats (10-12 weeks old) were exposed to RF-EMR from laptop computers which were grouped based on different exposure period (2hours, 4hours, 6hours and 8hours) for 4 weeks. The semen samples were obtained by caudal puncture of the epididymis from each participant for sperm quality analysis and blood collected by cardiac puncture for hormonal analysis using the chemiluminescent microparticles immunoassay method. The analysis of variance was done for the hormonal concentration and sperm quality parameters to check for the significance difference at 5% level of significance. The Dunnett’s multiple comparison test was done to test for significance comparison of radiation exposed groups and control group. Exposure to laptop computer display unit was associated with significant reduction in sperm motility, sperm viability and sperm count (P<0.0001), testosterone level (P<0.001), follicle stimulating hormone level (P<0.01). For the sperm morphology, there was no significant difference in the normal cells for the experimental setup, however, the appearance of abnormal cells in the exposed rats (2 – 8 hrs) were significant (P≤0.001). A correlation exists between RF-EMR exposed rats and the unsteadiness of the luteinizing hormone level and also the absence of the prostate specific antigen concentration. This study therefore shows that EMR from a charging laptop can significantly affect semen quality, male fertility and rendered male reproductive hormone unstable with no effect on prostrate specific antigens.