Neural and behavioral teratological evaluation of rats exposed to ultra-wideband electromagnetic fields.
Cobb BL, Jauchem JR, Mason PA, Dooley MP, Miller SA, Ziriax JM, Murphy MR · 2000
View Original AbstractUltra-wideband EMF exposure during pregnancy altered brain development and stress responses in rat offspring, raising concerns about similar technologies affecting human development.
Plain English Summary
Researchers exposed pregnant rats to ultra-wideband electromagnetic pulses (similar to radar technology) during pregnancy to see if it affected their offspring's development and behavior. The exposed rat pups showed three main differences: they made more stress vocalizations, had slightly enlarged brain structures (hippocampus), and male offspring were less likely to mate as adults. However, the researchers noted these effects might be random findings due to testing many different outcomes.
Why This Matters
This study examines ultra-wideband EMF technology that's increasingly used in military and communications applications. The science demonstrates measurable effects on developing brains even at relatively low power levels (45 milliwatts per kilogram). What's particularly concerning is that the exposed offspring showed increased stress responses and altered mating behavior - changes that could have long-term survival implications. While the researchers suggest these might be statistical flukes, the reality is that developing brains are uniquely vulnerable to electromagnetic interference. The fact that stress vocalizations increased suggests the EMF exposure was genuinely stressful to the animals, which aligns with other research showing EMF can trigger stress responses in biological systems.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 0.045 W/kg
- Electric Field
- 55000 V/m
- Exposure Duration
- (i) Daily UWB exposures during gestation days 3-18, or (ii) as a result of both prenatal and postnatal (10 days) exposures
Exposure Context
This study used 55000 V/m for electric fields:
- 183.3Kx above the Building Biology guideline of 0.3 V/m
Building Biology guidelines are practitioner-based limits from real-world assessments. BioInitiative Report recommendations are based on peer-reviewed science. Check Your Exposure to compare your own measurements.
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
Our study was performed to determine if teratological changes occur in rat pups as a result of (i) daily UWB exposures during gestation days 3-18, or (ii) as a result of both prenatal and postnatal (10 days) exposures.
Dams were exposed either to (i) UWB irradiation from a Kentech system that emitted a 55 kV/m-peak E ...
Behavioral, functional, and morphological effects of UWB exposure were unremarkable with these excep...
There does not appear to be a unifying physiological or behavioral relationship among the significant differences observed, and our findings could be due to the expected spurious results derived when a large number of statistical comparisons are made. Significant effects found between our positive-controls and other groups on numerous measures indicates that the techniques used were sensitive enough to detect teratological effects.
Show BibTeX
@article{bl_2000_neural_and_behavioral_teratological_909,
author = {Cobb BL and Jauchem JR and Mason PA and Dooley MP and Miller SA and Ziriax JM and Murphy MR},
title = {Neural and behavioral teratological evaluation of rats exposed to ultra-wideband electromagnetic fields.},
year = {2000},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11015117/},
}