EVALUATION OF POTENTIAL HEALTH-EFFECTS OF 10 KHZ MAGNETIC-FIELDS - A SHORT-TERM MOUSE TOXICOLOGY STUDY

A high-frequency inductive power distribution (HID) technology has bee n developed that generates sinusoidal magnetic fields at a frequency o f 10 kHz. In typical industrial applications, field intensities in the order of 0.2 mT can be expected between the current-carrying coils. B ecause the possible health effects of 10 kHz sinusoidal magnetic field s of this type]lad never been investigated, a broad evaluation of poss ible effects on animal health was made in a preliminary 14 day acute s tudy and in a 90 day subchronic study using male and female B6C3F1 mic e. Exposures were at 0.08, 0.28, and 1.0 mT vs. a background exposure of 3.7 mu T and were essentially continuous. These studies failed to d emonstrate any health effects that can be clearly related to the magne tic field exposure. No changes in animal behaviour or indications of m orbidity were detected during the initial exposure to the fields. Ther e were no significant differences in body weight between exposed and u nexposed (control) mice at any time in the study, and the clinical che mistry and hematology parameters were essentially unchanged. Although minor differences in some clinical chemistry and hematology parameters were seen between control and exposure groups, the lack of exposure d ependence, the lack of consistency between sexes, and the lack of corr espondence with the results of the two studies all suggest that these were chance associations. Even if the changes were real, the magnitude of the changes was very small and does not indicate serious biologica l effects. Finally, all organs were macroscopically and microscopicall y normal except for isolated, generally mild, histological lesions and lesions that were ascribed to fighting among males. There was no obvi ous association with field intensity. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.