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Radio Frequency

Residential exposure to radiofrequency fields from mobile phone base stations, and broadcast transmitters: a population-based survey with personal meter.

Measurement survey

Viel JF, Clerc S, Barrera C, Rymzhanova R, Moissonnier M, Hours M, Cardis E. · 2009

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A survey of 200 people with personal exposure meters found GSM and DCS exposure peaked at 280 m and 1000 m from antennas while FM exposure decreased within 10 km.

Plain English Summary

Summary written for general audiences

Researchers enrolled 200 randomly selected people who were supplied with personal exposure meters for 24 h measurements and kept a time-location-activity diary. They calculated the proportion of measurements above 0.05 V/m and the maximum electric field strength for each radiofrequency. Most measurements were below the detection limit, with FM having 12.3% above threshold, and maximum field strength never exceeded 1.5 V/m. GSM and DCS exposure peaked at 280 m and 1000 m from antennas, FM showed a downward trend within 10 km, while UMTS and TV signals did not vary with distance.

Why This Matters

The study aimed to characterize residential exposure distribution from antennas using personal meters because distance from a base station is often assumed to be a surrogate for exposure despite complex propagation. Residential addresses were geocoded and distances from each antenna were calculated. The authors noted that despite high variability in exposure assessment, a sound statistical technique showed GSM and DCS exposures increase with distance in the near source zone to a maximum where the main beam intersects the ground.

Exposure Details

Electric Field
0.05, 1.5 V/m
Exposure Duration
24 hours

Study Details

The main goal of this study was to characterise the distribution of residential exposure from antennas using personal exposure meters.

A total of 200 randomly selected people were enrolled. Each participant was supplied with a personal...

Much of the time, the recorded field strength was below the detection level (0.05 V/m), the FM band ...

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.

Cite This Study
Viel JF, Clerc S, Barrera C, Rymzhanova R, Moissonnier M, Hours M, Cardis E. (2009). Residential exposure to radiofrequency fields from mobile phone base stations, and broadcast transmitters: a population-based survey with personal meter. Occup Environ Med. 66(8):550-556, 2009.
Show BibTeX
@article{jf_2009_residential_exposure_to_radiofrequency_1409,
  author = {Viel JF and Clerc S and Barrera C and Rymzhanova R and Moissonnier M and Hours M and Cardis E.},
  title = {Residential exposure to radiofrequency fields from mobile phone base stations, and broadcast transmitters: a population-based survey with personal meter.},
  year = {2009},
  
  url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19336431/},
}
PubMed: 19336431

Cited By (97 papers)

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Quick Questions About This Study

200 randomly selected people were supplied with personal exposure meters for 24 h measurements and kept a time-location-activity diary.
The proportion of measurements above the detection limit of 0.05 V/m and the maximum electric field strength were calculated for each radiofrequency.
GSM and DCS exposure peaked around 280 m and 1000 m from antennas, FM exposure showed a downward trend within 10 km, and UMTS and TV signals did not vary with distance.
The maximum electric field strength was always lower than 1.5 V/m.
The authors found that GSM and DCS exposures increase with distance in the near source zone to a maximum where the main beam intersects the ground, despite high variability in exposure assessment.