In vivo bioelectrochemical changes associated with exposure to extremely low frequency electric fields

• One hundred seventy-four 21- to 24-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats were con-tinuously exposed to a 60 Hz electric field of 150 V/cm for one month in ten separate experiments. Biological effects observed included depressed body weights, serum corticoids, and water consumption. The findings are tentatively interpreted as indicating that a power frequency electric field is a biological stressor. The observed effects cannot be a consequence of Joule heating and therefore indicate that electric fields can influence biological systems either at the systemic level, or at the cellular level via electrochemical alteration of the microenvironment. INTRODUCTION' While there have been many reports of biological effects resulting from exposure of organisms to electromagnetic (EM) fields,1-4 no generally accepted coupling mechanism between organism and field has yet been elucidated. Durin