Article Text

Download PDFPDF

Residential exposure to radiofrequency fields from mobile phone base stations, and broadcast transmitters: a population-based survey with personal meter
Free
  1. J F Viel1,
  2. S Clerc1,
  3. C Barrera1,
  4. R Rymzhanova1,
  5. M Moissonnier2,
  6. M Hours3,
  7. E Cardis4
  1. 1
    CNRS Chrono-Environment n° 6249, University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
  2. 2
    Radiation Group, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France
  3. 3
    Epidemiological Research and Surveillance Unit in Transport, Occupation and Environment, INRETS, Bron, France
  4. 4
    Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), and Municipal Institute of Medical Research (IMIM-Hospital del Mar), Barcelona, Spain
  1. Jean-François Viel, CNRS Chrono-Environment n° 6249, Faculty of Medicine, 2, place Saint Jacques, 25030 Besançon, France; jean-francois.viel{at}univ-fcomte.fr

Abstract

Objectives: Both the public perceptions, and most published epidemiologic studies, rely on the assumption that the distance of a particular residence from a base station or a broadcast transmitter is an appropriate surrogate for exposure to radiofrequency fields, although complex propagation characteristics affect the beams from antennas. The main goal of this study was to characterise the distribution of residential exposure from antennas using personal exposure meters.

Methods: A total of 200 randomly selected people were enrolled. Each participant was supplied with a personal exposure meter for 24 h measurements, and kept a time–location–activity diary. Two exposure metrics for each radiofrequency were then calculated: the proportion of measurements above the detection limit (0.05 V/m), and the maximum electric field strength. Residential address was geocoded, and distance from each antenna was calculated.

Results: Much of the time, the recorded field strength was below the detection level (0.05 V/m), the FM band standing apart with a proportion above the detection threshold of 12.3%. The maximum electric field strength was always lower than 1.5 V/m. Exposure to GSM and DCS waves peaked around 280 m and 1000 m from the antennas. A downward trend was found within a 10 km range for FM. Conversely, UMTS, TV 3, and TV 4&5 signals did not vary with distance.

Conclusions: Despite numerous limiting factors entailing a high variability in radiofrequency exposure assessment, but owing to a sound statistical technique, we found that exposures from GSM and DCS base stations increase with distance in the near source zone, to a maximum where the main beam intersects the ground. We believe these results will contribute to the ongoing public debate over the location of base stations and their associated emissions.

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Funding: This work was supported by the French Agency for Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (grant PC-ERF-2005-002).

  • Competing interests: None.

  • Ethics approval: Ethical clearance for this study was granted by the French National Commission for the Confidentiality of Computerized Data (no. 1104049).

  • Patient consent: Obtained.