Fetal and maternal effects of continual exposure of rats to 970-MHz circularly polarized microwaves
Virtually continual exposure to970-MHz microwaves in circularly-polarized waveguides was used to elicit fetal responses in Sprague-Dawley rats during gestation. Two hundred fifty rats were exposed to microwave radiation at whole-body averaged specific absorption rates (SAR) of 0.07, 2.4, or 4.8 W/kg, or concurrently sham-irradiated for 22 h/day from the 1st through the 19th day of gestation. At SAR of 4.8 W/kg, only fetal body weight was significantly altered (-12%, P=.012). Two of twelve rats died during the exposure at SAR of 4.8 W/kg. Bred, but non-pregnant, rats that were exposed at SAR of 4.8 W/kg had significantly lower body weight gain than sham-irradiated rats; similar lower gain is assumed to have occurred in the pregnant rats exposed at SAR of 4.8 W/kg, and whose fetuses were significantly smaller. The authors conclude that continual gestational exposure at SAR of 4.8 (but not 2.4 or lower) W/kg induces fetal alterations. Apparently, deleterious maternal effects are associated with these fetal changes. Although colonic temperature was not measured in these rats, it is expected that exposure at 4.8 W/kg was hyperthermal.
- Research Organization:
- Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC (United States). Health Effects Research Lab.
- OSTI ID:
- 6952131
- Report Number(s):
- PB-92-227602/XAB; EPA-600/J-92/319
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Pub. in Electro- and Magnetobiology, v11 n1 p43-54 1992. Prepared in cooperation with National Inst. of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO., and ManTech Environmental Technology, Inc., Research Triangle Park, NC
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
MICROWAVE RADIATION
TERATOGENESIS
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
DOSE-RESPONSE RELATIONSHIPS
FETUSES
PREGNANCY
RATS
REPRODUCTION
ANIMALS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
MAMMALS
RADIATIONS
RODENTS
VERTEBRATES
560400* - Other Environmental Pollutant Effects