Physiological and behavioral effects of chronic exposure to 2450-MHz microwaves.

Long-Evans male adult rats were exposed for sixteen weeks to 2450-MHz CW microwaves at an average power density of mW/cm2. The resulting dose rate was 1.23 (+/- 0.25SEM) mW/g. The animals were exposed eight hours a day, five days a week, for a total of 640 h in a monopole-above-ground radiation chamber while housed in Plexiglas holding cages. Daily measures of body mass and of food and water intakes indicated no statistically significant effects of microwave irradiation. Biweekly stabilimetric tests immediately after exposure revealed a significant depression of behavioral activity by 15 microwave-exposed rats as compared with 15 sham-exposed animals. Measures of locomotor activity based on revolutions of a running wheel, which were obtained during 12-h periods between each 8-h exposure, showed no significant effect of irradiation. Blood sampled after 2, 6, 10, and 14 weeks of exposure indicated slight alterations of sulfhydryl groups, and of red and white blood-cell counts. Measures of levels of 17-ketosteroids in urine at weeks 1, 5, 9, and 12 of exposure, and mass of adrenals, heart, and liver at the end of the sixteen-week period of exposure, revealed no indications of stress.