Night-surfing students fail sperm test

Late night surfing is killing the sperm of Chinese students, according to family planning experts in the Hubei province.

According to the Sing Tao Daily, only 10 per cent of students could produce semen that was good enough to use in the Tongji Medical College's plea for a sperm bank.

More than 400 undergraduates answered the College's call for sperm. The hospital had targeted students in its advertising campaign because it believed that sperm from younger men should have been of a "finer quality".

But family planning department director Xiong Chengliang blamed late-night surfing for the high failure rate.

"Many undergraduates now lead an active nightlife where they smoke, drink or surf the internet late into the night," he said.

The Straits Times quotes him as saying: "Such unhealthy habits have affected the quality of their sperm."