Personal radiofrequency electromagnetic field exposure measurements in Swiss adolescents.
Roser K, Schoeni A, Struchen B, Zahner M, Eeftens M, Fröhlich J, Röösli M · 2017
View Original AbstractTeenagers get 67% of their EMF exposure from their own phones, not cell towers or Wi-Fi networks.
Plain English Summary
Swiss researchers tracked electromagnetic field exposure in 90 teenagers for three days. They discovered that teens' own mobile phones generated 67% of their total EMF exposure, while cell towers contributed only 20%. This shows personal device usage, not environmental sources, drives adolescent EMF exposure levels.
Why This Matters
This study delivers a crucial reality check about where adolescent EMF exposure actually comes from. While public concern often focuses on cell towers and Wi-Fi networks, the science demonstrates that teenagers' own mobile phones dominate their RF-EMF exposure by a factor of three to one. The measured exposure level of 63.2 μW/m² represents real-world conditions, not laboratory settings, making these findings particularly relevant for parents and teens. What this means for you is that managing EMF exposure requires focusing on personal device habits rather than avoiding environmental sources. The research reinforces that the device in your teenager's hand poses a far greater exposure concern than the cell tower down the street or the school's Wi-Fi network.
Exposure Details
- Power Density
- 0.00000632 µW/m²
- Electric Field
- 0.15 V/m
- Source/Device
- 470 to 3600MHz
Exposure Context
This study used 0.00000632 µW/m² for radio frequency:
- 632x above the Building Biology guideline of 0.1 μW/m²
- 10.5x above the BioInitiative Report recommendation of 0.0006 μW/cm²
Building Biology guidelines are practitioner-based limits from real-world assessments. BioInitiative Report recommendations are based on peer-reviewed science. Check Your Exposure to compare your own measurements.
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
The aim of this paper is to describe personal RF-EMF exposure of Swiss adolescents and evaluate exposure relevant factors. Furthermore, personal measurements were used to estimate average contributions of various sources to the total absorbed RF-EMF dose of the brain and the whole body.
Personal exposure was measured using a portable RF-EMF measurement device (ExpoM-RF) measuring 13 fr...
Main contributors to the total personal RF-EMF measurements of 63.2μW/m2 (0.15V/m) were exposures fr...
RF-EMF exposure of adolescents is dominated by their own mobile phone use. Environmental sources such as mobile phone base stations play a minor role.
Show BibTeX
@article{k_2017_personal_radiofrequency_electromagnetic_field_1299,
author = {Roser K and Schoeni A and Struchen B and Zahner M and Eeftens M and Fröhlich J and Röösli M},
title = {Personal radiofrequency electromagnetic field exposure measurements in Swiss adolescents.},
year = {2017},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28038972/},
}