MICROWAVES AFFECT THERMOREGULATORY BEHAVIOR IN RATS
Stern
Rats reduced lever pressing for an infrared heat lamp during 15-minute exposures to 2450 Megahertz microwaves at power densities from 5 to 20 mW/cm², with the reduction proportional to power density, immediate onset, and immediate recovery after exposure.
Plain English Summary
During each session, alternating 15-minute control and exposure periods presented 2450 MHz continuous wave microwaves at power densities of 5, 10, and 20 mW/cm². The proportion of time the heat lamp stayed on decreased as microwave power density increased, and a linear regression showed an intercept of 0.324, slope of -0.0063 (p<0.001), with power density accounting for 61% of the variation. Randomization tests confirmed significant differences at all power densities versus zero exposure (p<0.003), except at 5 mW/cm² versus all zero exposures (p=0.023) and versus adjacent 10 mW/cm² (p=0.021).
Exposure Details
- Power Density
- 20 mW/cm2
- Exposure Duration
- 15 minutes
Exposure Context
This study used 20 mW/cm2 for radio frequency:
- 2,000Mx above the Building Biology guideline of 0.1 μW/m²
- 33.3Mx above the BioInitiative Report recommendation of 0.0006 μW/cm²
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
Show BibTeX
@article{microwaves_affect_thermoregulatory_behavior_in_rats_g5428,
author = {Stern},
title = {MICROWAVES AFFECT THERMOREGULATORY BEHAVIOR IN RATS},
year = {n.d.},
}