Characterization of far-field and near-field exposure of the population for RF-EMF in realistic configurations of ICT usages

Abstract : The study presented in this paper is part of a larger study within the European FP7 project LEXNET framework. The project LEXNET aims at considering new technologies and architectures for minimizing the global exposure of a population to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. In the framework of the project a new exposure metric named Exposure Index (EI) is proposed. The EI quantifies the global exposure of a population induced by both mobile devices and base station antennas or wireless access points. The EI requires a set of SAR values (whole-body and local-body) for typical postures and usages of mobile devices in a population. In our study, we assessed these SAR values by 3D electromagnetic simulations. We used an adult and a child numerical model in two postures (sitting and standing) and in three usages (voice, data and laptop).The whole-body SAR for each exposure configuration was evaluated at four different frequencies (400, 900, 1940 and 2600MHz).