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 been developed that generates sinusoidal magnetic fields at a frequency of 10 kHz. In typical industrial applications, field intensities in the order of 0.2 mT can be expected between the current-carrying coils. Because the possible health effects of 10 kHz sinusoidal magnetic fields of this type had never been investigated, a broad evaluation of possible effects on animal health was made in a preliminary 14 day acute study and in a 90 day subchronic study using male and female B6C3F1 mice. Exposures were at 0.08, 0.28, and 1.0 mT vs. a background exposure of 3.7 microT and were essentially continuous. These studies failed to demonstrate any health effects that can be clearly related to the magnetic field exposure. No changes in animal behaviour or indications of morbidity were detected during the initial exposure to the fields. There were no significant differences in body weight between exposed and unexposed (control) mice at any time in the study, and the clinical chemistry 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 dependence, the lack of consistency between sexes, and the lack of correspondence 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 biological effects. Finally, all organs were macroscopically and microscopically normal except for isolated, generally mild, histological lesions and lesions that were ascribed to fighting among males. There was no obvious association with field intensity.