The effect of acute far field exposure at 2.45 GHz on the mouse testis.

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Male C3H mice were exposed in an anechoic chamber to 2.45 GHz microwave radiation. The exposures ranged from 1000 Wm-2 for 5 min to 100 Wm-2 for 260 min, giving dose rates to the testis ranging from 66 Wkg-1 to 7 Wkg-1. The mice were killed six days later and the testes examined histologically. Quantitatively, no significant effects were seen on cells identified as X-ray sensitive (spermatogonia type B) or heat sensitive (early primary spermatocytes and late primary and secondary spermatocytes) or on the sperm count. Extrapolation of these results to man would suggest that acute exposure to the Maximum Permissible Exposure level of 100 Wm-2 has no effect on the testes in the ranges 1 to 3.5 MHz and 300 MHz to 100 GHz. There was insufficient data to comment on other frequencies.