Experts say at least 100,000 men in Shanghai are suffering from infertility, because of ever-worsening environmental pollution as well as unhealthy lifestyle under higher work pressure, China Daily reported Thursday.

Radiation from cellphones, computers and other electronic devices, air, water and food pollution, combined with the sedentary lifestyle followed in cities are to blame for a possible "quality decline" of the sperm, leading to men's poor reproductive capability, Li Zheng, a urologist from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told the newspaper.

He said he had observed less sperm motility in men's semen and even some change in the sperms' morphology over the years, which may affect successful conceptions.

"About 50 percent of failures to achieve pregnancy is due to an abnormality or possibly an absence of sperm in the male partner's semen," Li said.

"The social significance of such a problem is obviously very huge. Since many of today's young couples are the only child of their parents, they are under pressure from their parents to have children."

Across China, an estimated 8 percent to 10 percent of the reproductive population is now experiencing problems having children, Li added.

Li, also director of Shanghai Sperm Bank, said the number of couples wanting to have children through artificial insemination is on the rise, although the number of donated sperm is not enough to meet the demand.

The rate of a successful sperm donation is only 1 to 2 percent, said Li, adding that in the bank's more than five-year history only 1,000 or so people qualified as donors, who have to be "both physically and mentally" healthy.

Li said men should be more aware of preserving their sperm before any potential threat affects the quality. He advised people with testis cancers, firemen and astronauts, as well as those involved in occupation in radiology, to extract and conserve their sperm for future use.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2009)