Is there a link between carrying around a switched-on mobile phone and impotence? Possibly, according to a recent study.

Mobile phones have been blamed for all sorts of modern ailments, from chronic stress to brain tumors.

Now medical researchers in Austria and Egypt have added yet another condition to the list. The conclusions of their study, published in the Central European Journal of Urology, indicate that intensive daily exposure to a switched-on mobile phone could be linked to erectile dysfunction.

The researchers came to this conclusion by studying two groups of men over the course of six years. The 20 men in the first group suffered from erectile dysfunction, while the 10 men in the second reported having no sexual health problems.

Each participant in the study filled out a questionnaire to record his daily mobile phone use.

The researchers noted that there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of average age, weight, height, smoking habits or testosterone levels. However, a difference was observed in the amount of time the men spent with their phone turned on and in their hand or pocket.

Those suffering from erectile dysfunction carried a switched-on mobile phone 4.4 hours per day on average, compared to just 1.8 hours per day for the men who did not experience impotence.

However, the results of the study should be taken with a grain of salt. As the researchers stress, additional studies must be carried out with larger sample groups before the evidence may be called conclusive.