Radiofrequency Exposure Levels from Mobile Phone Base Stations in Outdoor Environments and an Underground Shopping Mall in Japan

Teruo Onishi, Miwa Ikuyo, Kazuhiro Tobita, Sen Liu, Masao Taki and Soichi Watanabe
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Teruo Onishi: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo 184-8795, Japan
Miwa Ikuyo: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo 184-8795, Japan
Kazuhiro Tobita: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo 184-8795, Japan
Sen Liu: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo 184-8795, Japan
Masao Taki: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo 184-8795, Japan
Soichi Watanabe: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Tokyo 184-8795, Japan

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 15, 1-10

Abstract: Recent progress in wireless technologies has made human exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) increasingly complex. The situation can increase public concerns related to possible health effects due to EMF exposure. Monitoring EMF exposure levels and characterizing them are indispensable for risk communications of human exposure to EMFs. From this background, a project on the acquisition, accumulation, and applications of EMF exposure monitoring data in Japan was started in 2019. One of the objectives of this project is to obtain a comprehensive picture of EMF exposure in actual daily lives. In 2019 and 2020, we measured the electric field (E-field) strength from mainly mobile phone base stations in the same areas as those in measurements conducted in 2006 and 2007 by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), Japan, and compared the data to investigate the time-course of the EMF environment. The number of measured points was 100 (10 × 10 grids) in an area of 1 km × 1 km in two urban and two suburban areas, and that in an underground shopping mall was 158. This large-scale study is the first in Japan. As a result, we found that the measured E-field strengths tended to be higher in 2019 and 2020 than those in 2006 and 2007, especially in the mall. However, the median ratios to the Japanese radio wave protection guideline values for urban areas and malls are lower than ?40 dB.

Keywords: EMF exposure levels; monitoring; mobile base stations; outdoor environment; underground shopping mall; Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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