Dominant lethal studies in male mice after exposure to a 50‐Hz electric field

Male C3H/He mice were sham‐exposed or exposed continuously for 2 weeks to a vertical, 50‐Hz, electric field at 20 kV/m rms. Densities of currents induced in the testes are estimated to be near 100 μA/m 2 . After the exposure, each male was mated with two different female mice each week during a period of 8 weeks. By this schedule, female mice were impregnated with sperm that had been exposed to the electric field at different stages of the spermatogenic cycle. No significant differences as a function of exposure condition were observed in pregnancy rates or in survival of embryos before or after implantation. The absence of effects was not due to insensitivity of assays; other mice that were exposed to X‐rays (dose to testes = 1.5 Gy) presented reliable evidence of mutagenesis.