GUIDELINES AND POLICIES FOR EXPOSURE TO ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS

GUIDELINES AND POLICIES FOR EXPOSURE TO ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS

The establishment of exposure limits for E / M radiation by countries and international organizations has now become a necessary and integral part for the protection of the population. The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), has issued exposure guidelines used by most European countries. ICNIRP proposed in 1998 guidelines for the drafting of the current standard which were adopted by the European Commission for Standardization CENELEC (Commission European de Normalisation Electrotechnique) and the European Council. In 2018, ICNIRP - based on existing studies - announced a draft of new guidelines, in which the exposure limits at the current frequencies of the 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G systems are almost the same as in 1998. Greek legislation is based on ICNIRP guidelines. Exposure limits are based on published scientific literature, as well as results on short-term exposure.

Frequency Band

Electric Field Strength

Ε (V/m) (Algebraic Expression)

Magnetic Field Strength

Η (Α/m) (Algebraic Expression)

Plane Wave Power Density

S (W/m²) (Algebraic Expression)

0 – 1 Hz 32000
1 – 8 Hz 10000 32000 to 500 ( 32000/f² )
8 – 25 Hz 10000 500 to 160 ( 4000/f )
0,0025 – 0,8 KHz 10000 to 312,5 ( 250/f ) 160 to 5 ( 4/√f )
0,8 – 3 KHz 312,5 to 83,33 ( 250/f ) 5
3 – 150 KHz 87 5
0,15 – 1 MHz 87 4,87 to 0,73 ( 0,73/f )
1 – 10 MHz 87 to 27,51 ( 87/√f ) 0,73 έως 0,073 ( 0,0073/f )
10 – 400 MHz 28 0,073 2
400 – 2000 MHz 27,5 to 61,49 ( 1,375 · √f ) 0,074 to 0,165 ( 0,0037 · √f ) 2 to 10 ( f/200 )
2 – 300 GHz 61 0,16 10

Reference levels for electric and magnetic fields from 0 Hz - 300 GHz, according to the 1998 version of ICNIRP.

Frequency Band SAR (whole body) (W / Kg) SAR (head and trunk) (W / Kg) SAR (extremities) (W / Kg)
100 KHz – 10 GHz 0,08 2 4

The table refers to the frequency bands from 100 kHz - 10 GHz as defined by ICNIRP regarding the power absorbed by the masts. For the other frequency bands the Special Absorption Rate is considered negligible.