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(Database last updated on Mar 27, 2024)
| ID Number | 1064 | |
| Study Type | Engineering & Physics | |
| Model | EMF exposure (900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 88-2500 MHz)from mobile phone (GSM) base stations and other sources in Europe (Belgium, Sweden, The Netherlands and Switzerland) and analysis of regulatory compliance. | |
| Details | A series of calculational models was used to determine the distances from the the Kathrein 736863 GSM cell tower (947.5 MHz) [at both 10 watt and 20 watt transmit powers] that current human occupational exposure limits (SAR) would be exceeded. Peak SAR limits were most restrictive, with a threshold of 1.54 cm. In a subsequent publication, the authors performed emission measurements in 5 different locations including a residential area, rural area, suburban office, urban environment, and an industrial environment. Emission recordings were made using a spectrum analyzer on max hold for all signals present (FM, TV, GSM, UMTS, WiMAX) over a period of 30 minutes and used the results to estimate long term exposure levels from the different areas. The authors report a maximal recorded value of 1.43 V/m (below the ICNIRP reference level)with median values of 0.51 to 0.79 V/m for GSM, 0.54 to 0.71 V/m for UMTS, and 0.83 to 0.92 V/m for FM. Using cumulative distribution curves for the data, the authors propose methods to predict long term exposure over the course of several weeks. AUTHORS' ABSTRACT: Mahfouz et al. 2013 (IEEE #5284): The influence of temporal daily exposure to global system for mobile communications (GSM) and universal mobile telecommunications systems and high speed downlink packet access (UMTS-HSDPA) is investigated using spectrum analyser measurements in two countries, France and Belgium. Temporal variations and traffic distributions are investigated. Three different methods to estimate maximal electric-field exposure are compared. The maximal realistic (99 %) and the maximal theoretical extrapolation factor used to extrapolate the measured broadcast control channel (BCCH) for GSM and the common pilot channel (CPICH) for UMTS are presented and compared for the first time in the two countries. Similar conclusions are found in the two countries for both urban and rural areas: worst-case exposure assessment overestimates realistic maximal exposure up to 5.7 dB for the considered example. In France, the values are the highest, because of the higher population density. The results for the maximal realistic extrapolation factor at the weekdays are similar to those from weekend days. AUTHORS' ABSTRACT: Urbinello et al. 2014 (IEEE #5429): BACKGROUND: Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) are highly variable and differ considerably within as well as between areas. Exposure assessment studies characterizing spatial and temporal variation are limited so far. Our objective was to evaluate sources of data variability and the repeatability of daily measurements using portable exposure meters (PEMs). METHODS: Data were collected at 12 days between November 2010 and January 2011 with PEMs in four different types of urban areas in the cities of Basel (BSL) and Amsterdam (AMS). RESULTS: Exposure from mobile phone base stations ranged from 0.30 to 0.53 V/m in downtown and business areas and in residential areas from 0.09 to 0.41 V/m. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) demonstrated that measurements from various days were highly reproducible (measurement duration of approximately 30 min) with only 0.6% of the variance of all measurements from mobile phone base station radiation being explained by the measurement day and only 0.2% by the measurement time (morning, noon, afternoon), whereas type of area (30%) and city (50%) explained most of the data variability. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that mobile monitoring of exposure from mobile phone base station radiation with PEMs is useful due to the high repeatability of mobile phone base station exposure levels, despite the high spatial variation. AUTHORS' ABSTRACT: Urbinello et al 2014 (IEEE #5680): BACKGROUND: Concerns of the general public about potential adverse health effects caused by radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) led authorities to introduce precautionary exposure limits, which vary considerably between regions. It may be speculated that precautionary limits affect the base station network in a manner that mean population exposure unintentionally increases. AIMS: The objectives of this multicentre study were to compare mean exposure levels in outdoor areas across four different European cities and to compare with regulatory RF-EMF exposure levels in the corresponding areas. METHODS: We performed measurements in the cities of Amsterdam (the Netherlands, regulatory limits for mobile phone base station frequency bands: 41-61 V/m), Basel (Switzerland, 4-6 V/m), Ghent (Belgium, 3-4.5 V/m) and Brussels (Belgium, 2.9-4.3 V/m) using a portable measurement device. Measurements were conducted in three different types of outdoor areas (central and non-central residential areas and downtown), between 2011 and 2012 at 12 different days. On each day, measurements were taken every 4s for approximately 15 to 30 min per area. Measurements per urban environment were repeated 12 times during 1 year. RESULTS: Arithmetic mean values for mobile phone base station exposure ranged between 0.22 V/m (Basel) and 0.41 V/m (Amsterdam) in all outdoor areas combined. The 95th percentile for total RF-EMF exposure varied between 0.46 V/m (Basel) and 0.82 V/m (Amsterdam) and the 99th percentile between 0.81 V/m (Basel) and 1.20 V/m (Brussels). CONCLUSIONS: All exposure levels were far below international reference levels proposed by ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection). Our study did not find indications that lowering the regulatory limit results in higher mobile phone base station exposure levels. AUTHORS' ABSTRACT: Urbinello et al. 2014 (IEEE #5876): Background The rapid development and increased use of wireless telecommunication technologies led to a substantial change of radio-frequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure in the general population but little is known about temporal trends of RF-EMF in our everyday environment. Objectives The objective of our study is to evaluate temporal trends of RF-EMF exposure levels in different microenvironments of three European cities using a common measurement protocol. Methods We performed measurements in the cities of Basel (Switzerland), Ghent and Brussels (Belgium) during one year, between April 2011 and March 2012. RF-EMF exposure in 11 different frequency bands ranging from FM (Frequency Modulation, 88 MHz) to WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network, 2.5 GHz) was quantified with portable measurement devices (exposimeters) in various microenvironments: outdoor areas (residential areas, downtown and suburb), public transports (train, bus and tram or metro rides) and indoor places (airport, railway station and shopping centers). Measurements were collected every 4 s during 1050 min per environment and measurement day. Linear temporal trends were analyzed by mixed linear regression models. Results Highest total RF-EMF exposure levels occurred in public transports (all public transports combined) with arithmetic mean values of 0.84 V/m in Brussels, 0.72 V/m in Ghent, and 0.59 V/m in Basel. In all outdoor areas combined, mean exposure levels were 0.41 V/m in Brussels, 0.31 V/m in Ghent and 0.26 V/m in Basel. Within one year, total RF-EMF exposure levels in all outdoor areas in combination increased by 57.1% (p<0.001) in Basel by 20.1% in Ghent (p=0.053) and by 38.2% (p=0.012) in Brussels. Exposure increase was most consistently observed in outdoor areas due to emissions from mobile phone base stations. In public transports RF-EMF levels tended also to increase but mostly without statistical significance. Discussion An increase of RF-EMF exposure levels has been observed between April 2011 and March 2012 in various microenvironments of three European cities. Nevertheless, exposure levels were still far below regulatory limits of each country. A continuous monitoring is needed to identify high exposure areas and to anticipate critical development of RF-EMF exposure at public places. AUTHORS' ABSTRACT: Urbinello and Roosli 2013 (IEEE #6644): When moving around, mobile phones in stand-by mode periodically send data about their positions. The aim of this paper is to evaluate how personal radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) measurements are affected by such location updates. Exposure from a mobile phone handset (uplink) was measured during commuting by using a randomized cross-over study with three different scenarios: disabled mobile phone (reference), an activated dual-band phone and a quad-band phone. In the reference scenario, uplink exposure was highest during train rides (1.19 mW/m(2)) and lowest during car rides in rural areas (0.001 mW/m(2)). In public transports, the impact of one's own mobile phone on personal RF-EMF measurements was not observable because of high background uplink radiation from other people's mobile phone. In a car, uplink exposure with an activated phone was orders of magnitude higher compared with the reference scenario. This study demonstrates that personal RF-EMF exposure is affected by one's own mobile phone in stand-by mode because of its regular location update. Further dosimetric studies should quantify the contribution of location updates to the total RF-EMF exposure in order to clarify whether the duration of mobile phone use, the most common exposure surrogate in the epidemiological RF-EMF research, is actually an adequate exposure proxy. AUTHORS' ABSTRACT: Verloock et al. 2014 (IEEE #6645): Characterization of exposure from emerging radio frequency (RF) technologies in areas where children are present is important. Exposure to RF electromagnetic fields (EMF) was assessed in three "sensitive" microenvironments; namely, schools, homes, and public places located in urban environments and compared to exposure in offices. In situ assessment was conducted by performing spatial broadband and accurate narrowband measurements, providing 6-min averaged electric-field strengths. A distinction between internal (transmitters that are located indoors) and external (outdoor sources from broadcasting and telecommunication) sources was made. Ninety-four percent of the broadband measurements were below 1 V m(-1). The average and maximal total electric-field values in schools, homes, and public places were 0.2 and 3.2 V m(-1) (WiFi), 0.1 and 1.1 V m(-1) (telecommunication), and 0.6 and 2.4 V m(-1) (telecommunication), respectively, while for offices, average and maximal exposure were 0.9 and 3.3 V m(-1) (telecommunication), satisfying the ICNIRP reference levels. In the schools considered, the highest maximal and average field values were due to internal signals (WiFi). In the homes, public places, and offices considered, the highest maximal and average field values originated from telecommunication signals. Lowest exposures were obtained in homes. Internal sources contributed on average more indoors (31.2%) than outdoors (2.3%), while the average contributions of external sources (broadcast and telecommunication sources) were higher outdoors (97.7%) than at indoor positions (68.8%). FM, GSM, and UMTS dominate the total downlink exposure in the outdoor measurements. In indoor measurements, FM, GSM, and WiFi dominate the total exposure. The average contribution of the emerging technology LTE was only 0.6%. AUTHOORS' ABSTRACT: Aerts et al. 2017 (IEEE #6874): As both the environment and telecommunications networks are inherently dynamic, our exposure to environmental radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) at an arbitrary location is not at all constant in time. In this study, more than a year's worth of measurement data collected in a fixed low-cost exposimeter network distributed over an urban environment was analysed and used to build, for the first time, a full spatio-temporal surrogate model of outdoor exposure to downlink Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) signals. Though no global trend was discovered over the measuring period, the difference in measured exposure between two instances could reach up to 42dB (a factor 12,000 in power density). Furthermore, it was found that, taking into account the hour and day of the measurement, the accuracy of the surrogate model in the area under study was improved by up to 50% compared to models that neglect the daily temporal variability of the RF signals. However, further study is required to assess the extent to which the results obtained in the considered environment can be extrapolated to other geographic locations. |
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| Findings | Not Applicable to Bioeffects | |
| Status | Completed With Publication | |
| Principal Investigator | Ghent University, Brussels, Belgium | |
| Funding Agency | Brussels Inst Management Environ | |
| Country | BELGIUM | |
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