Hatrack River Forum: "A serious case of laptop burn ..."

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Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :

One more thing women have to their advantage: they don't have to face the horrors of scrotal hyperthermia or the even more dreaded "laptop burn."
Teenagers, Young Men Warned of Laptop Health Risk from YahooNews/Reuters.

quote:
Teenagers and young men should keep their laptops off their laps because they could damage fertility, an expert said Thursday.

Laptops, which reach high internal operating temperatures, can heat up the scrotum which could affect the quality and quantity of men's sperm.
[skipped section]
"It [a study printed in the journal Human Reproduction] shows that scrotal hyperthermia is produced by both special body posture and the local heating effect of laptop computers," Sheynkin said.

You can see what laptop burn is at the link.

[edit: Hey, blackcatwings, welcome to the forum. [Wave]

]

[ December 08, 2004, 07:36 PM: Message edited by: Morbo ]

Posted by blackcatwings (Member # 7077) on :

that's......scary. [Eek!]

Posted by Uhleeuh (Member # 6803) on :

I just checked and my boy doesn't put his laptop on his lap. He does put his pizzas on his lap, though. I wonder if it has the same effect. [Dont Know]

Posted by Phanto (Member # 5897) on :

Is there anything that doesn't decrease mens' sperm count?

Posted by Dragon (Member # 3670) on :

That sounds really painful...

Posted by WheatPuppet (Member # 5142) on :

I have a 12" Apple PowerBook, it has an aluminum case. It gets very hot. Far hotter than any other laptop I've held. That said, I've never had it get hot enough to actually cause any lasting discomfort--it never burns. It's like handling a hot coffee mug or plate of hot food.

I also don't rest it right on my genitals (well, once on this really cold day...), instead it sits on my lap out by my knees. Usually this is an exceedingly uncomfortable position for typing or long term use, so it never stays there for long.

I'm happy that the article didn't postulate on some scary "radiation" that laptops put out specifically to damage male sexual organs. I seem to remember hearing stories like that about transformer stations and radar guns. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :

Oh no! Not the swim team! Good thing I'm desktops-only.

Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :

I've found that my laptop is just warm enough to make a great heating pad. I've never been burned by it, but I don't have anything that temperature sensitive there (is it correct that you don't have to have your skin burned to cause trouble with the sperm count?)

Twinky, your euphemism is hilarious.

Posted by MEC (Member # 2968) on :

quote:
Is there anything that doesn't decrease mens' sperm count?

Puberty

Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :

Maybe they should stop calling it a laptop. Hmmm.

Posted by Don Driscoll (Member # 4488) on :

My 15" Powerbook gets very hot as well, WheatPuppet. Check out Temperature Monitor. I've seen temperatures as high as 145F!

As for pizza, I have very fond childhood memories of going to the pizza shop on a cold winter day and coming back with a warm pizza on my lap.

-Don

P.S. I've got two healthy kids...