Residential exposure to RF-EMF from mobile phone base stations: Model predictions versus personal and home measurements

摘要

Introduction: Geospatial models have been demonstrated to reliably and efficiently estimate RF-EMF exposure from mobile phone base stations (downlink) at stationary locations with the implicit assumption that this reflects personal exposure. In this study we evaluated whether RF-EMF model predictions at the home address are a good proxy of personal 48 h exposure. We furthermore studied potential modification of this association by degree of urbanisation. Method: We first used an initial NISMap estimation (at an assumed height of 4.5 m) for 9563 randomly selected addresses in order to oversample addresses with higher exposure levels and achieve exposure contrast We included 47 individuals across the range of potential RF-EMF exposure and used NISMap to re-assess downlink exposure at the home address (at bedroom height). We computed several indicators to determine the accuracy of the NISMap model predictions. We compared residential RF-EMF model predictions with personal 48 h, at home, and night-time (0:00-8:00 AM) ExpoM3 measurements, and with EME-SPY 140 spot measurements in the bedroom. We obtained information about urbanisation degree and compared the accuracy of model predictions in high and low urbanised areas. Results: We found a moderate Spearman correlation between model predictions and personal 48 h (r_(Sp) = 0.47), at home (r_(Sp) = 0.49), at night (r_(Sp) = 0.51) and spot measurements (r_(Sp) = 0.54). We found no clear differences between high and low urbanised areas (48 h: high r_(Sp) = 038, low r_(Sp) = 0.55, bedroom spot measurements: high r_(Sp) = 0.55, low r_(Sp) = 0.50). Discussion: We achieved a meaningful ranking of personal downlink exposure irrespective of degree of urbanisation, indicating that these models can provide a good proxy of personal exposure in areas with varying build-up.