Home measurements of RF exposure in the French Comop program
Résumé
The French government asked to look after the possibility to decrease public exposure to the radiofrequency electromagnetic fields emitted by mobile phone base stations, together with an evaluation of its impact on the coverage of the territory and the grade of service of the networks. INERIS performed different measurements in 16 cities, classified in six standard leaving configurations: rural in plain, rural in mountain, suburbs, modern dense city, old dense city, high density business district. An experimentation area was defined in each commune with several measurement sites potentially more exposed. Electric fields were lower in rural areas and higher in high density city centers. Opening the window increased the exposure by 20%. Outside measurements were twice higher than inside. The exposure levels did not follow expected variations of mobile phone communications traffic and showed only 30% changes over 24h periods, without specificity during the weekends. Individual exposure did not correspond to the measured value at the most exposed place of the living place. The distribution of electric field exposures of an individual during one or some days was quite comparable to the distribution of the measured values in the streets of the area. Individual exposures to sources other than mobile telephone antennas are mostly due to domestic wireless phones, partly to WiFi and sometimes to radio FM. Geolocalised measurements showed the same shape as the numerical modeling of electric field levels, although the measured levels were lower. This work was supported by the Ministry for Ecology and Sustainable Development.