ID Number		1592
Study Type		Engineering & Physics
Model		RF emissions from various sources (FM, GSM, UMTS, WLAN, Bluetooth, DECT) and evaluation of RF emissions and potential public exposures.
Details		Measurements of RF fields around wLAN access points distributed around metropolitan areas (city LANs) to evaluate possible public exposure. In addition, assessments of other RF transmitting sources (bluetooth, DECT, etc) AUTHORS' ABSTRACT: Neubauer et al. 2010 (IEEE #6642): The selection of an adequate exposure assessment approach is imperative for the quality of epidemiological studies. The use of personal exposimeters turned out to be a reasonable approach to determine exposure profiles, however, certain limitations regarding the absolute values delivered by the devices have to be considered. Apart from the limited dynamic range, it has to be taken into account that these devices give only an approximation of the exposure due to the influence of the body of the person carrying the exposimeter, the receiver characteristics of the exposimeter, as well as the dependence of the measured value on frequency band, channel, slot configuration, and communication traffic. In this study, the relationship between the field strength measured close to the human body at the location of the exposimeter and the exposure, that is, the field strength at the location of the human body without the human body present, is investigated by numerical means using the Visible Human model as an anatomical phantom. Two different scenarios were chosen: (1) For FM, GSM, and UMTS an urban outdoor scenario was examined that included a transmitting antenna mounted on the roof of one of four buildings at a street crossing, (2) ForWLANan indoor scenario was investigated. ForGSM the average degree of underestimation by the exposimeter (relation of the average field levels at the location of the exposimeter to the field level averaged over the volume of the human body without the body present) was 0.76, and for UMTS 0.87; for FM no underestimation was found, the ratio was 1. In the case ofWLANthe degree of underestimation was more pronounced, the ratio was 0.64. This study clearly suggests that a careful evaluation of correction factors for different scenarios is needed prior to the definition of the study protocol. It has to be noted that the reference scenario used in this study does not allow for final conclusions on general correction factors.
Findings		Not Applicable to Bioeffects
Status		Ongoing
Start Date
End Date
Principal Investigator		ARC Seibersdorf Research, Germany
Funding Agency		BfS, Germany, DMF, Germany
Country		GERMANY
References		Neubauer, G et al. Bioelectromagnetics., (2010) 31:535-545
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