Quantitative Estimation of Electromagnetic Radiation Exposure in the Vicinity of Base Transceiver Stations via in-situ Measurements Approach

Isabona Joseph[1*] , Odesanya Ituabhor[2]
Page No. 28-40

There is concern that exposure to radio frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) from mobile phone
base transceiver stations (BTS) might lead to adverse health effects. In order to assess the potential
health risks, reliable exposure assessment is necessary. In-situ measurement based exposure
assessment is an enhanced approach to quantify ambient exposure to EMF in the vicinity of BTS
deployed in residential areas. In this paper, using in-situ measurement approach, the human
exposure level to electromagnetic fields radiated from the base stations in residential areas is
studied with a broadband field meter. It was observed that values of the electric field strength and
magnetic field strength are in the range of 0.07 V/m to 0.96 V/m and from 0.00020 A/m to 0.0025
A/m respectively, both which are quite lower than the maximum safety standard limits ((41V/m for
electric field strength and 0.8 A/m for magnetic field strength) set by the International Commission
on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and other regulatory agencies. To validate
previous results using the electric and magnetic field strength data, the EM radiation exposure
ratio (ER) of each BTS was further calculated and the highest ER of 1.42 E-4 and 1.35E-5 and
8.86E-5 were recorded in BTS 2, both which is less than 1. Therefore, the vicinity of each assessed
BTS is in compliance with the reference levels for general public since the ER value is lower than 1.
Key words: Electromagnetic field radiation, Base transceiver station, in-situ measurement,
Exposure ratio