[en] The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has recommended that incubation time for the hypotonic treatment of lymphocytes in dicentric assay technique to be between 15 to 20 minutes. Incubation time will effect the hypotonic treatment of lymphocytes and thus, the breakage of cytoplasmic membrane. The objective of this study is to examine the effect of varying incubation times for hypotonic treatment of lymphocytes in dicentric assay technique. In this study, we choose to use our standard protocol for dicentric assay technique. However, for the hypotonic treatment of lymphocytes, the incubation times were varied from 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 minutes respectively. Lymphocytes were then fixed and stained with Giemsa. The cells were then analyzed for clear background that indicates good metaphases. We found that incubation time of 30 minutes gives the best metaphase images. This incubation time is longer than what has been recommended by the IAEA. This maybe explained by the fact that our country's climate is of higher humidity compared with the European countries. (author)