Abstract
Human exposure to intermediate frequency magnetic fields (MF) is increasing due to applications like electronic article surveillance systems and induction heating cooking hobs. However, limited data is available on their possible health effects. The present study assessed behavioral and histopathological consequences of exposing mice to 7.5 kHz MF at 12 or 120 μT for 5 weeks. No effects were observed on body weight, spontaneous activity, motor coordination, level of anxiety or aggression. In the Morris swim task, mice in the 120 μT group showed less steep learning curve than the other groups, but did not differ from controls in their search bias in the probe test. The passive avoidance task indicated a clear impairment of memory over 48 h in the 120 μT group. No effects on astroglial activation or neurogenesis were observed in the hippocampus. The mRNA expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor did not change but expression of the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha mRNA was significantly increased in the 120 μT group. These findings suggest that 7.5 kHz MF exposure may lead to mild learning and memory impairment, possibly through an inflammatory reaction in the hippocampus.
Highlights
Electromagnetic fields are ubiquitous in the environment with new technologies and novel applications being actively developed and commercialized
Numerous studies have addressed health effects of extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields associated with generation, transmission and use of electric power and those of radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields emitted by, e.g., mobile communication systems
As a measure of general health we determined the body weights of the animals after the completion of exposure and after behavioral tests
Summary
Electromagnetic fields are ubiquitous in the environment with new technologies and novel applications being actively developed and commercialized. Numerous studies have addressed health effects of extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields associated with generation, transmission and use of electric power and those of radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields emitted by, e.g., mobile communication systems. Few data are available on possible health effects of intermediate frequencies (IF) fields between the ELF and RF ranges [1]. The IF range is usually considered to cover frequencies from 300 Hz to 100 kHz (or up to 10 MHz; the upper limit depends on how RF is defined). Human exposure to IF fields is increasing due to applications like electronic article surveillance systems [2] and induction heating cooking hobs [3].
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