Microwave Radiation and Thermoregulation.
Abstract
Low intensity microwave fields alter normal responses, both autonomic and behavioral, that regulate the body temperature. Using the squirrel monkey as an animal model, we have quantified the minimal intensity of 2450 MHz CW microwaves that will lower metabolic heat production in the cold, initiate thermoregulatory sweating in the heat, alter peripheral vasomotor tone in thermoneutral environments, and stimulate a behaving animal to select a cooler environment. The threshold intensities for all responses were remarkably similar (4-8 mW/cu cm), representing 15-20% of the monkey's resting metabolic rate. This finding suggests a common thermal basis for the response changes. Autonomic responses that generate or dissipate body heat showed some adaptation during prolonged microwave exposure whereas behaviroal thermoregulatory responses persisted unchanged as long as the microwave field was present. Partial body microwave exposure produced appropriate adjustments in thermoregulatory responses to a degree nominally proportional to the fraction of the body so exposed. In general, whether the environment is cold or warm, endotherms detect and respond immediately to low intensity microwave fields as they do to other environmental thermal stimuli with the result that internal body temperature is regulated with precision at the normal level. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA111244
Entities
People
- Eleanor R. Adair