The effects of NMR exposure on living organisms. I. A microbial assay.

Various bacterial strains have been exposed to a homogeneous magnetic field of 1 Tesla and to the conditions found in an NMR imaging experiment of the type used in a recent abdominal scan (Mansfield et al., 1978). No mutagenic or lethal effects were observed. The activity of the bacterial enzyme beta-galactosidase was also found to be independent of the applied magnetic field.