The first sperm bank in east China's Zhejiang Province revealed that 86 percent of the sperm collected in the past year is unqualified, reported the Youth Times.

 

There are more than 600 donors, but about 80 of them are qualified to donate sperm.

 

The density of sperm has declined by more than 40 percent compared with 50 years ago. It falls below the national average, according to the Human Sperm Bank of Zhejiang Provincial Family Planning Institute.

 

Reasons are many: environmental pollution, too much nightlife, drinking, smoking, excessive use of cell phones and computers, work stress, air conditioning and other factors, the report said.

 

The bank was launched last March, first in the province.

 

Professor Yao Kangshou, head of the bank, said 90 percent of donors are university students; the rest are white-collar workers.

 

Yao said most volunteers are turned away because of the low quality of their sperm, although they are able to reproduce.

 

The Zhejiang Human Sperm Bank is one of the six official sperm banks on the Chinese mainland - the others are in Shanghai, Chongqing, Jiangsu, Guangdong and Hunan.

 

In the 1980s, 70 to 80 percent of the volunteers qualified, half of the volunteers qualified in the 1990s. Now just 14 percent are qualified.

 

(Shanghai Daily February 18, 2006)