Value chain · CLM-1329
In plain terms
A 1972 US government-funded report found that cataracts in animals needed about ten times the worker limit for an hour or more, and that the range between the limit and that level had never been properly studied in people.
The claim as recorded
A 1972 University of Rochester report for the US Atomic Energy Commission states that, across many rabbit experiments, 100 mW/cm2 for 1 hour or longer appears to be the lowest time-power threshold for cataracts between 2450 and 10,000 MHz, and that in dogs the threshold appears higher. It calls the data offered for non-thermal, cumulative or direct cellular effects equivocal. It finds no evidence of cataracts from whole-animal exposure even well above 100 mW/cm2, and says that human cataracts had been linked to estimated levels well above 100 mW/cm2, with no human case fully verified. It says a person would probably feel heating well below 100 mW/cm2, which would serve as a warning. It states that prospective studies with accurate exposure records would be needed to decide whether occupational exposure between 10 and 100 mW/cm2 can cause cataracts. It warns that rabbit results may not suit even indirect extrapolation to man, and that human latency of ten or more years has been reported against at most one year in rabbits.
Evidence behind this: T3, an AEC contractor report with a named author; it permits "the report states Y". Same laboratory as SRC-684, so it does not independently confirm that review.
Scope and limits
The report states the margin over the 10 mW/cm2 standard two ways that do not agree: "seven to eight times" (abstract) and "several orders of magnitude" (p.23). By our arithmetic its own 100 mW/cm2 threshold is 10 times, one order of magnitude, above 10 mW/cm2; neither phrase matches that. Use the threshold, not either phrase. Only PDF pp.1-3 and 27 were read closely; the body text between them was not checked. The warning-by-sensation point is the report's view and is not tested in it.
What it assumes
Incident power density at the eye; rabbit eye as the main model.
Where it comes from
PDF p.2 (abstract, render): "100 mW/cm2 for 1 hr or longer appears to be the lowest time-power threshold"; "Data that are presented to indicate non-thermal, cumulative, or direct cellular effects are equivocal." PDF p.3 / printed -2- (render): prospective studies needed for "the range of 10 mW/cm2-100 mW/cm2". PDF p.2 versus PDF p.27 / printed -23- (render): the margin is "seven to eight times" in the abstract and "several orders of magnitude higher" on p.23.
Basis: mW/cm2 incident, with exposure time; MHz
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-001 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1329
CLM-1329, Energy Aperture, as of 1972.