Assessment of occupational exposure to radiofrequency fields and radiation.

Abstract

The use of personal monitors for the assessment of exposure to radiofrequency fields and radiation in potential future epidemiological studies of occupationally exposed populations has been investigated. Data loggers have been developed for use with a commercially available personal monitor and these allowed personal exposure records consisting of time-tagged measurements of electric and magnetic field strength to be accrued over extended periods of the working day. The instrumentation was worn by workers carrying out tasks representative of some of their typical daily activities at a variety of radio sites. The results indicated significant differences in the exposures of workers in various RF environments. A number of measures of exposure have been examined with a view to assessing possible exposure metrics for epidemiological studies. There was generally a good correlation between a given measure of electric field strength and the same measure of magnetic field strength.