Effect of short-term exposure to radio frequency emitted by base transceiver station (BTS) antenna on epididymal sperms

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the effect of short-term exposure to RF waves generated by BTS antenna on the viability and motility of stored sperm in different parts of the epididymis. One hundred testes from slaughtered bulls were collected and used for this study. The testes were divided into two groups, test and sham-exposed, each group, according to time of exposure to RF (1 to 5 h), was divided into five subgroups, ten in each group. After a defined time, the motility (tail of the epididymis) and viability of sperms (in three parts of the epididymis) were evaluated in both groups. In the head of the epididymis, the reduction of sperm viability observed in the test group was 13% (after 3 h), 18% (after 4 h) and 21% (after 5 h) compared to the sham-exposed group, which was statistically significant (P < 0.05). In the test group, sperm viability was significantly reduced in the body and tail sections after 4 and 5 h compared to the sham-exposed group (P < 0.05). After 3 h of exposure to RF, the percentage of progressive motility of sperm decreased (8.7%), while the percentage of slow progressive motility increased significantly (6.4%) after 4 h compared to the sham-exposed group (P < 0.05). These results suggested that short-term exposure to RF generated by mobile BTS has a deleterious effect on the quality of epididymal sperm (viability and motility) and that this effect is more severe in the head section and increases with increased exposure time.