The Dust is Settled, and the Validation in Complete...
IITRI has completed construction of our new Cell Phone Toxicology Laboratory, and performance of the exposure and monitoring system in the laboratory has been independently validated by a team of engineers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Experimental work in the facility began in October 2008.
IITRI's Cell Phone Toxicology Laboratory includes 21 state-of-the-art
RF exposure chambers.
This laboratory occupies approximately 17,000 square feet in the basement of the IIT Research Tower, and is fully dedicated to an NIEHS-sponsored program in which the possible health effects of exposure to radio frequency (RF) fields from wireless communications devices will be evaluated. The laboratory includes a large exposure area designed to house 21 RF exposure chambers, two animal quarantine and breeding rooms, an engineering control room, facility-dedicated necropsy and cage wash facilities, locker rooms, an administrative office and support space.
Design and construction of the facility, which is located in space formerly occupied by the IITRI 60 Hz Magnetic Fields Toxicology facility, was a two-year project. Following laboratory construction, exposure chambers designed by our collaborator, IT’IS Foundation (Zurich, Switzerland), were delivered to the facility through its roof, and were installed in the exposure area of the laboratory. Validation and optimization of exposure and monitoring system operations required an additional six months of effort by the IITRI Project Team.
Cell phone chamber delivery and installation.
The facility is designed to support exposures of laboratory animals to radio frequencies representing both GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) standards for mobile telephones. The first study to be conducted is designed to determine the influence of RF exposure on body temperature in rats and mice. This study is being performed to characterize the relationship between RF field strength and the induction of thermal responses, with the goal of identifying the highest RF field strengths to which animals can be exposed without significant changes in body temperature. The results of these studies will be used to set exposure levels for subsequent subchronic toxicity studies, to be followed by the conduct of chronic toxicity/oncogenicity evaluations in both species. It is expected that experimental work will continue into 2012.