Determining the influence of Korean population variation on whole-body average SAR

Abstract

Compliance of the ICNIRP reference and IEEE action levels with the basic restrictions on whole-body average (WBA) SAR was investigated based on age, physique, and posture under isolated and grounded conditions. First, Korean male models 1, 3, 5, 7, and 20 years of age with body sizes in the 50th percentile were developed and used as the test subjects: 1y50th, 3y50th, 5y50th, 7y50th, and 20y50th. The effects of age-dependent dielectric properties due to the water content of the tissue on WBA SAR were analysed, and showed that the changes in WBA SAR are marginal. At the ages of 1, 5, and 20, thin models 1y10th, 5y10th, and 20y10th with body sizes in the 10th percentile for the horizontal plane were added in order to determine the influence of physical variations of the population. We considered standing postures with arms up and arms down. The WBA SAR for each human model was calculated when exposed to a vertically polarized plane wave in the frequency range of 10 MHz–3 GHz using the finite-difference time-domain method. The evaluated WBA SAR-based safety factor of each model is discussed for exposure to the ICNIRP reference and IEEE action levels. Finally, the lowest external electric field strength required to produce the basic restrictions on the WBA SAR, 0.08 W kg−1, was obtained. The results showed that the ICNIRP public reference level is not conservative in the frequency range of 20–200 MHz for an arms-up posture, in the range of 40–200 MHz for an arms-down posture, and above 1 GHz for both postures. The IEEE action level is different from the ICNIRP reference level below 30 MHz, where most cases showed a safety factor of less than 50, which is the minimum value compliant with the basic restrictions for exposure to the general public.