know-how | cover story study conducted last year by physicians in the German city of Naila caused a lot of commotion. \Thoy sifted through their card files and compared a group of patients living near a mobile telephone netwerl base station with another group. The results were not so good: there were approximately twice as many cases of cancer among the group located close ‘to the transmitting tower. ‘The "Reflex’ study commissioned by the European Union [1)), which costed ‘more than $ million euros also caused @ (great str. It was concluded that high- frequency electromagnetic radiation at UMTS and GSM frequencies causes an increased number of breaks in DNA strands: involuntary gene modification; modified genetic characteristics. In more concrete terms: it was noticed ‘that the herd produced less milk and lost woight after a GSM tower was placed in the vicinity of their pasture. ‘The number of miscarriages and still- born calves also increased. Moving the herd to a different pasture outside the range ofthe new GSM tower improved milk production, and the other com- plaints also decreased significantiy. To put things to the test, the herd was again moved back to the first pasture, and sure enough: milk production stalled again and medical complaints algo increased. 2) Can’t be that serious? Mi. J. Houtenbos of www.straling.nl finds these wild stories a bit exagger- ated, Although in his opinion the haz- ard cannot be considered to be totally References 1 wovwstorweave.com/rellex/ 2 Repacholi MH, Baston A, Bebski V, Finnie J, Harris AW. lymphomos in E mmvFim| transgenic mice exposed to ulsed 900 MHz electromagnetic. Feld. Rodiot Res 1997; 14789140 3 Journal ofthe Physical Society of Jopan, Vol. 7, p. 432 4 Hylond, G., The Lancet, November 25, 2000; 356:1833-40. 5 wowsivm.l/biblctheek/ digitaaldepot/Zwambom2003COFA Miopport pdf “ Mobile telecom operators are rolling out the systems they hope will recover the licences for the new UMTS services. The blessings: watching TV on your mobile, videophones, surfing, 70,000 extra masts, worrying electromagnetic radiation. insignificant, since there's a lot to be said against holding a mobile tele- phone with its -watt transmitter right next to your head, he points out that the radiation from the antenna towers (generally remains within the limits and ‘well below the meximum levels speci- fied by the standards, with a fow exceptions, For instance, if large mum- ber of calls ate made from a single loca- tion, additional power is necessary so everyone can phone at the same time The Japanese physicist Tsuyoshi Hon- dou, a member of the staff of Tohuku single mobile phone, but what about University in Sendai, carried out 2 when several mobile phones are being study of the use of mobile telephones used at the same time? And what and field strength in trains. He found about the other equipment in your that the standard was already everyday environment: cordless, ‘exceeded 20 people made calls at the _(DECT) telephones, WLAN, Bluctooth, samo time and their telephones trans- microwave ovens, wireless (security) mitted with an average power of04W cameras, radar, point-to-point trans- ‘That was naturally related to reflee- mission systems used by telecommu- tions of the signals and the small, _nications companies, communications enclosed space, which acted asa Fara. satellites, the taxi dispatch olfica day cage. Just imagine the radiation _around the comer, the walky-talkies level ina fll train in Japan with avery- used by the police, fire department ono phoning at the same time. If in and ambulance personnel, the radio. addition they all have ‘poor reception’, controlled model car belonging to the the radiation level will be even higher, boy next door, and now UMTS (which since each transmitter can, is allowed _ stands for ‘Universal Mobile Telecom- to, and will increase its power upto munications System’)? 2W. [3]. That puts things in a different A nice word has been invented for all perspective. of this: electrosmog (where ‘smog! is ‘bortowed from the word for a more vis- 1 fle and odorous form of air pollution, ‘What's up? which was originally formed from the Mobile telephones use the same type combination of ‘smoke’ and ‘fog’. of radiation (microwaves) as _In torms of physics, it's all relatively microwave ovens, Microwaves can simple, Transmitters (including mobile thus be used to heat things. And if phones) generate electromagnetic microwaves in a microwave oven can fields. In human tissue, a portion of the hheat material, the microwaves froma received energy is absorbed and con- mobile telephone can do the same verted into heat. This is referred to as thing. Naturally, the amount ofheating ‘thermal effects’. These effects have is less, due to the lower output power been thoroughly investigated, and the (2watts foramobile telephone versus processes are well understood. The 780 watts for a microwave oven), but _statutory regulations specify that for still occurs, There's no problem witha health seasons, body tissue is not beets 4/205,not aware 2s schoolyards, allowed to’be heated up more than one degree Celsius by radiation (see the ‘Power density and SAR’ inset). Any- thing more than this is prohibited Under control! To be sure of entirely eliminating health hazards due to thermal effects, specific field strength thresholds apply to stationary transmitters with @ ‘power of more than 10 watts in azeas where people stay for prolonged lengths of time. For transmitters with Base station locations Probobly os a result of politcal pressure and ‘concer expressed by several organisations, ‘Ofcom, the Office for Communication (formerly the BT's Radio Agency) are supplying 0 mobile phone base station locator tha’s acces: sible by the Inlecnet. Uni recently, this informa- lion wos either classified or only obiainable by cuting through © lt of red tape. The Sitefinder ‘webpages olso have on Informaiion Sheet that’ quite useful athough neuial in terms of radiation hazards presented by the 70k or so bate stations eventually acive up and down the counir. The Sitefinder dotobase is updated co a remarkably slow rate of once every three ‘months, Compare thot withthe ime i fakes o crew of experienced suile building verigotee engineers fo erect o mast and commission the equipment ond you should not be surprised to leis Studies and research ‘To provide objective information about ‘emissions in the immediate vicinities of transmitters for mobile telephone systems, extensive studies have been phones’, said Bornkessel. That carted out by various levels of gavem- ment during recent years, as well as studies commissioned by network operators. For instance, in North Rhine-Westphalia the renowned ‘Inti tut far Mobil- und Satellitenfunktach- nik’ (IMST GmbH) made measure- ‘Antonnas are net only iden onthe laternetl, can’t be that bad frequencies above 2 GHz, such as UMTS base stations, the threshold value is 61 V/m, which conespondsto vic @ power density of approximately 10 ‘W/m?. Ifa network operator wishes to erect an installation with a power of 10 Wer more, an additional permit is required. Based on the antenna radia- tion characteristics and the structural situation, the responsible (govern- ment) authority determines a safe dis- tance beyond which the threshold value is in no event allowed to be exceeded, As this authority only oper ates on a random-sample basis and is ‘sources of radiation, a safety factor is elso applied according to the number of antennas already present and several other parameters. In addition, inspection departments ‘make measurements over the entire RF spectrum in sensitive locations, such monte in ten German cities, and the measured values inside and in the of buildings proved to be well below the threshold values, even close to the antennas, With a few excep- tions, the measured power density was less than 1% of the permissible power density. Nevertheless, the experts also obtained some surprising results, For instanca, the power den- sity by no means decreased gradually upto around 100 meteas; in that region the difference in the heights of the transmitter and the measurement point had @ much larger influence. “Just like a lighthouse, the antenna radiate most of their power in the pri- sary direction, but there are also sev- eral side lobes”, explained IMST employee Christian Bornkessel, who coordinated the measurements. These side lobes are what negate the prevail ing doctrine that the region directly ‘below the antenna should be practi- cally fe of radiation. “To our surprise, you can't automatically assume that there's practically nothing to measure under the roof of a building with a transmitting antanna for mobile tele- dopends a lot more on the structural situation.’ Nevertheless, even in the ‘worst case the values proved to be ‘well below the threshold value According to Bornkessel, there are thus ‘no grounds for ‘horror stories’ (On the other hand, opponents contend suddenly see masts nol yet identified by Sitefinder. Sitefinder provides the following information fn each bate station: type of ransmission, ‘ontenna heighi, frequency range, transmit ‘power ond maximum licensed power. In Germany, similr governmen's office goss dt least one beter than Ofcom by also show: ing measured) energy lvl and osc sofe distances, ‘Ofcom Sitefinder ot: sun sitefinder.radio govuk/ German equivalent soueem@forechungsproge Dutch equivalent: ‘wow ontann stort 15know-how | cover story that the question of whether ameasue- this point. When you're phoning with _0.6 W/g). As measurement engineer ‘ment justifies a horror story depends a mobile telephone, the field strength __Bornkessel explained, "The manufac- entirely on the threshold values. Inthe inside your head can be as high as turers are in a difficult position. Irthey itection of the main beam, the field 800 V/m, which—as the master of visu- make too much of a fuss about low strength is still 6 V/m at a distance of alization put it~is ‘enough to ignite an SAR values, that could he regarded as 100 m', argued instrumentation engi- explosive mixture of gasses'.Theelec- an admission that the radiation from neer Reiner Muller, who is elso.a.con- _tromagneticfield ofa household DECT —_mobile phones isin fact hazardous. sultant to the environmental organisa- base station can also easily reach the _In the opinion of BUND expert Miller, tion Bund fur Umwelt und Naturschutz level of a mobile telephone base sta-_ there is a major need for additional Deutschland (BUND). The expert put his _tion transmitter. studies of what happens inside chil- findings in perspective by saying: dren's heads when they use mobile "According to the legally permitted field phones. As he pointed cut, ‘Now that strength, €0% of el Eekior Elccronics Manufacturers are keeping mum over three-year-olds are phoning, you circuits would fail the test!" According to the recommendations of _can'trely on measurements made with ‘At the same time, Bornkessel thinks the International Commission onNon- a water-filled model the size of an that the controversy regarding more _ Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), _adult head.” restrictive threshold values, such as mobile telephones should not be able "Tobe on the safe sido, the BUND argues the frequently cited Swiss threshold _toradiate more than 2W perikilogram for reducing the value to 0.5 Vim in value of 6 Vim, only fosters the uncer- of body weight into the user's head. order to account for the non-thermal tainty of the general public. That cer- Some of the current mobile phones are _effects on the organism. It appears that tainly became clear to him after con- well below this threshold value forthe such effects do exist, but up to now it vorsations with Swiss colleagues. "The specific absorption rate (SAR; see hasn't been possible to prove them primary need for precautions is with inset), but the manufacturers aren't. According to Miller, research more ‘mobile telephones, not base stations’, saying this out loud. The industry has specifically focused on such offects is said the mobile telephone expert. By _alsorefused to endorsethe ‘blue angel’ _necessary. He said that in any case he way of exception, environmental environmental label for low-radiation _ missed this ‘central theme! in the stud- activist Maller fully agreed with himon mobile phones (with SAR values below ies currently being conducted by the Deutsche Mobilfunk Forschungspro- gramm (German Mobile Communica- Why so many base stations? "one Rasoach Pogramme) In the UK. the number of base stalions carrying mobile phone services is evenivally expected fo almost double fo @ slaggering 50,000 ~ 70,000. Alarming? Moybe not Forgeting forthe momen! the line-cksight effect plicable to SHF radio wves, i's ‘ssime you'd wont to ute 0 single antenna to cover the enire UK. You then buld a ‘massive antenna radioiing en equally massive amoun! of power. The RF power levels ide effects Miller has @ point, because the current rules are based on the thermal effects rodced would bn a erge ora orvnd he onlenno Wi a azadous oreo and ignore the non-thermal effect. For eave the locally present radiation level would far exceed human life conditions. example, why are people not allowed The alenolve sing ll of onlennasrditing lower power (20-100 wats enc to have their mobile phones switched FoR Wee uae ALO MH Um cers DOINERCaNe AE! cain hoequals? Tho ‘sonakive oauip querily with even lower power, there is no resrcted crea at all — offer al, you hold ‘iia ty thie Hope oir Betbothe Your mole ogo yu! hea. So mre’ baie ons no necessary mor don eit any tata amactvaaimay Gerous because ot losin theory it causes the local power to drep. The ‘no mosi- Torches’ conpoignts oe obo faced wih is clenmo. SR a a Summary of wireless systems Frequency Pose Terminal vit Bose sttion Max. pack / average ‘ate frequency tine slots power Aerial uit power SN-900 network 890-960 217 Hz 1or8 5-50 W New 1) 2.W / 250 mv) (New 2) GSM-1800 network 1710-1880 217 Hz 1or8 5-20 W (Nee 1) 1/125 many (Nom 2) uns (63) 1900-2170 various methods 5-50 W Nee 1) TW Nee 2) pect 1880-1900 100 Hz Vor 24 250 mW max. 250 mW / 10 mW wun 2400-2483 10 Hz 4 100 mW max. (Note 1) 100 mw (Now 1) Bhetooth 2402-2480 1600 He Tor 2 N96) 1;2.5; 100 mW max. (NS) 1; 2,5; 100 mw [New 5S) Teel pws nce ds aon. Tht pne edn pin ction Wea connie nen Gina. Deda dane. 5 Sd 3.2, cl Teg, 7s en oe rma nin Pc de ed dt lo ils. 16 lr eta -/208