Presentation on EMF

U. K. Srivastava
DDG (Radio)
Telecom Engineering Centre
New Delhi

26 July 2010, ALTTC, Ghaziabad

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 Electromagnetic Fields
• Exposure of human beings to EMF
raises concerns of possible health
effects.
• Radio transmitters used for
telecommunication are proliferating.
• ITU-T began to study a question on
health effects in 1996.

2
EMF exposure standards
• International Commission on Non Ionizing
Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines
for limiting exposure to time-varying
electric, magnetic and electromagnetic
field up to 300 GHz.
• Adopted in many countries.
• Fundamental reference for K.52
• Should be used unless a national
standard takes precedence.

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Relevant ITU-T standards
• K-52: Guidance of complying with limits for
human exposure to electromagnetic field.

• K-61: Guidance on measurement and

numerical prediction of electromagnetic fields
for compliance with human exposure limits
for telecommunication installations.

• K-70: Mitigation techniques to limit human

exposure to EMFs in the vicinity of
radiocommunication stations.
Exposure fundamentals
• Two tier exposure limits
– Controlled/ occupational exposure
– General population/ uncontrolled
exposure, also called general public
exposure.
• Formulas for multiple exposures
• Formulas for short term exposures

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6
ICNIRP reference levels
Type of Frequency Electric field Magnetic field Equivalent Plane
exposure range Strength (V/m) Strength (A/m) Wave power
Density Seq (W/m2)

General Up to 1 Hz - 2x104 -
public
1-8 Hz 10 000 2x104 /f2 -
8-25 Hz 10 000 5 000/f -
0.025-0.8 kHz 250/f 4/f -
0.8-3 kHz 250/f 5 -
3-150 kHz 87 5 -
0.15-1 MHz 87 0.73/f -
1-10 MHz 87/f ½ 0.73/f -
10-400 MHz 28 0.073 2
400-2000 MHz 1.375f ½ 0.0037f½ f/200
2-300 GHz 61 0.16 10
Summary of ICNIRP exposure guidelines
Summary of exposure limits
General S (Power E (Electric field
Public density) intensity)
W/m2 V/m
900 MHz 4.5 41.3
1800 MHz 9.0 58.3

S=ExH, E/H= 377 ohm, S= E2/377

 Achieving compliance
• Identify appropriate compliance limits
• Perform exposure assessment for
intentional transmitters only
• If needed, perform by calculations or
measurement.
• If the EMF exposure assessment
indicates pertinent exposure limits may be
exceeded in areas where people maybe
present, mitigation/ avoidance measures
should be applied.

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 Exposure classification
• Compliance zone
– Potential exposure to EMF is below the
applicable limits
• Occupational zone
– Potential exposure to EMF is below the limits
for occupational exposure but exceeds the
limits for general public exposure
• Exceedance zone
– Potential exposure to EMF exceeds the limits
for both, occupational and general public
exposure

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Exposure zones
 Mitigation techniques
• Occupational zone
– Restrict access to general public
• Physical barriers, lock out procedures or
adequate signs can accomplish the access
restriction.
– Workers may be permitted to enter the
area
• Workers entering the occupational zone
should be informed

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 Mitigation techniques
• Exceedance zone
– Restrict access to workers and the
general public
• If workers need to enter the area, take
steps to control the exposure
– Temporarily reduce the power of the emitter,
– Controlling the duration of the exposure so that
time averaged exposure is within safety limits,
– Use shielding or protective clothing

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Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)
• SAR is a dosimetric quantity that is widely
adopted to quantify the radiation from mobile
phones.
• SAR is used to measure the amount of RF
energy absorbed into the head during the use of
mobile phone.
• SAR values are a measure of the maximum
absorption of energy per unit of tissue mass of a
person exposed to RF radiation over a given
period of time; or in simple terms, the power
absorbed per unit mass.
• The unit for SAR is watts per kilogram (W kg-1).
This measurement is made over 10 g of tissue.

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 Installation Compliance Scheme

• Inherently compliant- complies with

limit a few centimeter away.
• Normally compliant- exceedance
zone is not normally accessibly to
public.
• Provisionally compliant- require
special measure to achieve
compliance.
 EMF evaluation techniques

A. Calculation method
a. Prediction of RF fields
b. Calculation to determine EIRPth
B. Software simulation
C. Field measurement
 Prediction for RF field

2 m

To simplify the foregoing, define h' = h – 2 [m]. Using trigonometry,

R 2  h 2  x 2
 h 
  tan –1  
x

Taking into account reflections from the ground, the power density becomes:

2.56 EIRP
S F ( ) 2 2.56 may be replaced by 4,
4 x  h 2
for 100% reflection

EIRP
S  F ( )
 ( x 2  h 2 )
 Procedure to determine installation class
• Define antenna types.
• Define set of accessibility conditions.
• Define threshold EIRP for given antenna type and
accessibility condition.
• For each site, an installation is normally compliant if
following criteria is met:

EIRPi
 EIRPth,i
1
i
Antenna directivity categories

• Half wave dipole

• Broad coverage antenna
(omnidirectional or sectoral)
• High-gain producing a pencil beam
Accessibility categories

Accessibility category 1
Accessibility category 2
Accessibility category 3
Access. Cat. 4 a

Access. Cat. 4 b
 Measurement
•SAR measurement
 human head phantom and automatic
system
 very important for the hand sets
manufacturers
•Electric field strength
measurement
 broad band – cheap but with
overestimation
 frequency selective – more
expensive and time consuming,
require post processing
•On site and laboratory
 Measurement
advantages
•It takes into account all radiating
sources with real parameters
•It takes into account real
environment (reflections, antenna
supporting hardware,
obstacles)
•Takes into account simultaneous
exposure in the real way (phase
differences of the different waves
are taken into account)
 Measurement
advantages
•It can be done with little
knowledge about radiating
sources (initial measurement of
the occupied spectrum is
required only)
•Good quality measurement
equipment is accessible on the
market
•A live demonstration of the
measurement to the interested
people is possible
 Measurement
disadvantages
•Measurement is not possible for
the radiating sources that do not
exist yet
•It is difficult to take into account
the time variation of the EMF (for
example mobile communication)
•The effect of the presence of staff
and equipment on the EMF
distribution has to be avoided
•SAR measurements have to use
phantoms that are approximations
only of the human body
 Measurement
disadvantages
•It is difficult to confirm and check
that all the sources are operating
with maximum ERP
•In the multiple sources
environment a post processing is
required because of different limits
for different operating frequencies
•Out of band emissions may lead
to overestimation in the in-band
measurement
 Calculations
advantages
•Non existing radiating sources can
be considered
•The possibility to take into account
the maximum possible radiation levels
(ERP’s) that lead to the maximum
possible exposure levels
•There are many calculation methods
with different level of accuracy
•The calculation with high level of
overestimation is very easy to use
 Calculations
advantages
•Calculation costs are lower then the cost of measurements
•It gives an opportunity to use mitigation technique if required
•It is possible to make calculation in areas with no access

ITU-T Technical Session

on EMF
 Calculations
disadvantages
•Very accurate results
require detailed description of
the radiating antennas
•In most cases do not take
into account the influence of
reflections
•Require good knowledge of
the software used
•Require at least basic
knowledge concerning
transmitting antennas

FEKO software
 Measurement
vs. Calculations
•Human exposure assessment
may be done by measurement or
calculations
•Both methods have advantages
and disadvantages
•Both methods have similar level
of uncertainty and accuracy
depending on the method and
equipment or software used
 Mitigation techniques
• Decrease in transmitter power
• Increase in antenna height
• Decrease in the Vertical Radiation
Pattern (VRP) downtilt
• Increase in antenna gain (directivity)
• Change in VRP
• Change in HRP
• Multiple methods applied
simultaneously
 Indian scenario
• Existing BTS to be guidelines compliant and self
certified.
• New BTS to radiate only after self certificate.
• TERM cell to test up to 10% of BTS.
• Old BTS audit in case of public complaint.
• Testing charge Rs. Ten thousand.
• Tools and equipment by service provider.
• Penalty of Rs. 5 lakh.
• Testing status on website.
• Total testing by TERM cells on payment.

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 Status so far
• TEC has developed the following
documents-
– Testing procedure for SAR measurement
system
– Generic Requirement for EMF strength
measuring system
– The test procedure for EMF measurement is
likely by August 2009, after consulting all the
stakeholders.
– TEC is setting up a SAR lab
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 WHO observations
Fact sheet N°304
May 2006
…Conclusions
Considering the very low exposure levels
and research results collected to date,
there is no convincing scientific evidence
that the weak RF signals from base
stations and wireless networks cause
adverse health effects.
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THANKS

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 Rough calculation for exclusion zone
1. Output power per carrier is 20W, sectoral
antenna gain about 16-18 dbi in cities and 33
dbi on highways.
2. Neglect cable loss, and assume 4 carriers, the
worst case for main lobe in city will be:
20W=43 dbm
EIRP per carrier= 43dbm+ 18dbi=
61dbm=1258.925W
Total EIRP= 4 x 1258.925= 5037.7W
Using K.70 formula, D=6.38 x √ (EIRP/f)= 15.1m
This is the worst case value as cable loss is
neglected and also main lobeassumed.