Personal radiofrequency electromagnetic field measurements in the Netherlands: Exposure level and variability for everyday activities, times of day and types of area

Measuring personal exposure from 900MHz mobile phone base stations in Australia and Belgium using a novel personal distributed exposimeter

“…Previous studies also found variation in exposure across various microenvironments (Bolte and Eikelboom, 2012;Frei et al, 2009;Urbinello et al, 2014a). Spatial factors, such as the location of the measurement sites (urban, suburban, rural, outdoor, indoor etc.…”

“…A microenvironment is a spatial compartment where a human subject spends time and his/her personal RF-EMF exposure is evaluated for that specific duration Urbinello et al, 2014aUrbinello et al, , 2014b. The selected microenvironments were similar to those employed in various previous studies (Bolte and Eikelboom, 2012;Frei et al, 2009;Röösli et al, 2010;Urbinello et al, 2014aUrbinello et al, , 2014b. The characteristics of each microenvironment, its spatial characteristics, and the activities undertaken therein by the subject are summarized in Table 1 in Appendix A.…”

“…), distance to nearby base stations; temporal factors (e.g. day, time and season when the measurements were performed), and existing mobile phone traffic are likely to impact the levels of far-field personal exposures (Bolte and Eikelboom, 2012;Joseph and Verloock, 2010;Manassas et al, 2012;Urbinello et al, 2014b;Vermeeren et al, 2013).…”

“…Furthermore, RF-EMF is also absorbed by the leaves of trees, which would vary according to the amount of foliage present according to different seasons of the year. Mobile phone base stations vary their broadcasting power to provide optimum signal coverage (Bolte and Eikelboom, 2012). Finally, the two countries also have some differences in terms of their natural environments and physical infrastructures, which may influence the mobile phone network in specific areas.…”

“…Several European studies indicate that mobile phone base stations are a major source of whole body exposure to RF-EMF (Bolte and Eikelboom, 2012;Frei et al, 2009;Gajšek et al, 2015;Urbinello et al, 2014b;2014c;Vermeeren et al, 2013). More specifically, mobile phone base stations are a dominant exposure source to the whole body in urban outdoor environments and on public transport Urbinello et al, 2014aUrbinello et al, , 2014b.…”