Geospatial modelling of electromagnetic fields from mobile phone base stations

Science of The Total Environment

Huss

Beekhuizen

et al. 2014

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 (PEM). 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 minutes) 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.

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

Use of portable exposure meters for comparing mobile phone base station radiation in different types of areas in the cities of Basel and Amsterdam

Science of The Total Environment

Huss

Beekhuizen

et al. 2014

“…non-central residential area). This is not expected to bias the trend analysis, because this measurement protocol has been shown to provide reproducible values (Beekhuizen et al, 2013). However, the reported values may not be fully representative for the whole corresponding measurement area.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…However, difference in exposure has been found to be low between different days of the week (Beekhuizen et al, 2013;Joseph and Verloock, 2010;Joseph et al, 2009). Exposure from mobile phone base stations seems to be slightly higher during weekdays than weekend (Joseph et al, 2009, Mahfouz et al, 2013 and electric field strength was found to be about 10-30 percent higher during daytime than during nighttime (Manassas et al, 2012, Mahfouz et al, 2011, indicating some overestimation of the average exposure situation.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Measurement duration in the same microenvironment was always the same and ranged between 10 to 60 minutes for different environments (Table 1). For this duration of measurements within a microenvironment we have previously observed to produce reproducible and reliable results in the sense that average exposures within a type of microenvironment approach a stable mean value (Beekhuizen et al, 2013;Urbinello et al, 2014). The mobile phone was turned off during data collection.…”

Section: Definition Of Microenvironments and Measurement Procedures Imentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Temporal trends of radio-frequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure in everyday environments across European cities

Joseph

Verloock

et al. 2014

Environmental Research

BackgroundThe 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. ObjectivesThe 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. MethodsWe performed measurements in the cities of Basel (Switzerland), Ghent and Brussels Within one year, total RF-EMF exposure levels in all outdoor areas combined 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.

“…However, we suspect that even though there could be differences in exposure levels at different times of the day; these are probably similar across the different cities. Furthermore, temporal variability has been found to be low across days of the week (Beekhuizen et al 2013). …”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Radio-frequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure levels in different European outdoor urban environments in comparison with regulatory limits

Environment International

Joseph

Huss

et al. 2014

BackgroundConcerns of the general public about potential adverse health effects caused by radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) 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. AimsThe objectives of this multicenter 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. MethodsWe performed measurements in the cities of Amsterdam (the Netherlands, regulatory limits for 3 ConclusionsAll exposure levels were far below international reference levels proposed by ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation). Our study did not find indications that lowering the regulatory limit results in higher mobile phone base station exposure levels. KEY WORDSPortable exposure meter; Radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF); Regulatory limits;Exposure assessment 4