Measurements of human exposure from emerging wireless technologies

The rapid development of wireless technologies leads to increased human exposure to electromagnetic fields from new devices. Most of these technologies communicate in short to medium range. Communication devices, such as mobile phones (GSM, UMTS, LTE) and wireless computer networks (WLAN, HSDPA, WIMAX) usually work at distances up to some 10 km. Other techniques like Bluetooth, RFID, and wireless USB work at distances up to a few meters. RFID systems can use several frequency bands from low frequencies up to microwaves. The other technologies are mainly using microwave frequencies. Most of these technologies have a rather low-output power, typically <1 W average power, except for fixed transmitters like base stations. This means that the exposure from distant sources is low. If the devices are kept close to the body, the local exposure can be in the range of the levels in the ICNIRP recommendation; this is the case, for example, for mobile phones and WLAN transmitters in laptops. For distant sources, there exist several measurement techniques such as spectrum analysers, measurement receivers, and broadband meters. For sources used close to the body, the local SAR levels have to be determined. For this purpose, instruments measuring the local electric field inside body phantoms have been developed. An alternative to measurements is numerical simulations. If one has knowledge of the signal characteristics of the different technologies then it is possible to find a suitable measurement technique to assess the human exposure.