Development and dosimetry analysis of a 2-GHz whole-body exposure setup for unrestrained pregnant and newborn rats

For investigation of possible bio-effects of the 2-GHz wideband code division multiple access cellular system on pregnant and newborn rats, we have developed an unrestrained whole-body exposure setup, which employs two dipole antennas to induce a circularly polarized field at the location of the rats. The dosimetric results, by using the finite-difference time-domain method in conjunction with anatomical rat models, have confirmed the realization of a circular polarization in the exposure space, and have also revealed that the exposure setup can maintain a relative variation of the whole-body average specific absorption rate (SAR) within +/- 60% of the designed average level for various positions of rats. These findings show that the exposure setup is reasonable and acceptable in view of the actual SAR variation in a human body due to RF exposure from base stations.