The effects of a chronic multigenerational exposure of rats to a 2.14 GHz electromagnetic field on development, fertility and brain functions should be investigated.
The present study was designed as an extension of a previous study by the authors (Takahashi et al., 2010) with further parameters and an additional generation (F3) .
12 pregnant rats were divided into 3 groups (n=4 each): 1) sham exposure, 2) low-level exposure and 3) high-level exposure. Exposure started on gestational day 7 with generation P1 and on the first postnatal day the litters were culled to 8 young animals (4 males and 4 females) per mother, resulting in 16 young animals of each sex per group (F1). The mothers were then exposed for further 21 days together with the pups (until weaning) and subsequently, the P1 mothers investigated and the F1 rats were further exposed until 6 weeks of age. Then half of the rats were investigated (8 males and 8 females per group) and the rest was used for mating to generate F2, which was done when the rats were 11 weeks old. F2 rats were treated like F1 rats and were partly investigated after 6 weeks of exposure and partly used to generate generation F3, which was finally killed and examined when the rats were 11 weeks old.
The whole experiment was conducted twice.
| Exposure | Parameters |
|---|---|
|
Exposure 1:
2.14 GHz
Exposure duration:
continuous for 20 h/day over 3 generations
low level exposure
|
|
|
Exposure 2:
2.14 GHz
Exposure duration:
continuous for 20 h/day over 3 generations
high level exposure
|
|
| Frequency | 2.14 GHz |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Polarization |
|
| Exposure duration | continuous for 20 h/day over 3 generations |
| Additional info | low level exposure |
| Additional info | downlink signals from base stations of the W-CDMA system in Japan with a bandwidth of 5 MHz, a peak to average power ratio of 3 dB, and a number of codes of 512 in the downlink. |
| Exposure source | |
|---|---|
| Chamber | acrylic cages |
| Setup | exposure chamber was made of metal with dimensions of 90 x 90 x 40 cm; the inside, except for the roof, was paved with a 6 cm thick planar radio frequency absorber with a reflection loss of more than 20 dB at 2.14 GHz; exposure chamber contained 4 acrylic cages, each containing either one pregnant rat, 1 mother and 8 pups or 4 young animals, depending on the stage of the experiment; two 3/2-wavelength antennas were placed beneath the ceiling at a distance of 1.4-1.8 wavelengths from the rats in the chamber; during exposure 22 ± 3°C and 55 ± 15% humidity were maintained |
| Sham exposure | A sham exposure was conducted. |
| Measurand | Value | Type | Method | Mass | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAR | 0.034 W/g | mean | measured and calculated | whole body | ± 0.012; for fetuses |
| SAR | 0.081 W/g | mean | measured and calculated | whole body | ± 0.04; highest value for young animals before weaning |
| SAR | 0.06 W/g | mean | measured and calculated | whole body | ± 0.018; for young animals after weaning |
| SAR | 0.05 W/g | mean | measured and calculated | whole body | ± 0.007; highest value for mothers |
| power | 0.97 W | - | measured | - | ± 5% |
| Frequency | 2.14 GHz |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Polarization |
|
| Exposure duration | continuous for 20 h/day over 3 generations |
| Additional info | high level exposure |
| Exposure source |
|
|---|
| Measurand | Value | Type | Method | Mass | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAR | 0.102 W/g | mean | measured and calculated | whole body | ± 0.035; for fetuses |
| SAR | 0.244 W/g | mean | measured and calculated | whole body | ± 0.12; highest value for young animals before weaning |
| SAR | 0.18 W/g | mean | measured and calculated | whole body | ± 0.055; for young animals after weaning |
| SAR | 0.149 W/g | mean | measured and calculated | whole body | ± 0.022; highest value for mothers |
| power | 2.91 W | - | measured | - | ± 5% |
The body weight was significantly higher in group 3 (high level exposure) of generation F3 compared to the sham exposure group. However, the data were not consistent in both experiments, the difference was slight and the biological significance is unknown. Several organ weights were significantly increased in both exposure groups of offspring generations compared to the sham exposure. However, these data were inconsistent over the generations and between the genders in both experiments. All other parameters were either not significantly different between the exposure groups and the sham exposure group or the differences occured only sporadically and inconsistently.
The authors conclude that a chronic multigenerational exposure of rats to a 2.14 GHz electromagnetic field has no effect on the investigated parameters. Thus, the results of the previous study are confirmed.
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