EMF Emissions Research Articles

The exposure of nonhuman living organisms to mobile communication emissions: A survey to establish European stakeholders' policy option preferences.

There is an unprecedented exposure of living organisms to mobile communications radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) emissions. Guidelines on exposure thresholds to limit thermal effects from these emissions are restricted to humans. However, tissue heating can occur in all living organisms that are exposed. In addition, exposure at millimetric frequencies used by 5G may impact surface tissues and organs of plants and small-size species. It is also expected that the addition of 5G to existing networks will intensify radiofrequency absorption by living organisms. A European Parliament report proposed policy options on the effects of RF-EMF exposure of plants, animals, and other living organisms in the context of 5G: funding more research, implementing monitoring networks, accessing more information from operators on antennas and EMF emissions, and developing compliance studies when antennas are installed. However, there is no evidence on the preferences of relevant stakeholders regarding these policy options. This paper reports the findings of a survey of key European stakeholders' policy option preferences based on the European Parliament's report. It reveals a broad consensus on funding more research on the effects of exposure of plants, animals, and other living organisms to EMFs. It also highlights the need for deliberation concerning the other policy options that could provide solutions for regulatory authorities, central administrations, the private sector, nongovernmental associations and advocates, and academics. Such deliberation would pave the way for effective solutions, focusing on long-term output from funding research, and enabling short-term socially and economically acceptable actions for all parties concerned.

Hybrid deep learning model for efficient prediction of telecom data using EMF radiation

EMF has a variety of biological impacts and has an impact on the metabolic process in the human body. Antenna towers, anechoic chambers, and other sources can all produce this. Some of the human populations live very close to the EMF-emitting antenna towers. We can make humans aware of the EMF radiation and protect from diseases if there is a proper method to anticipate the EMF radiation of antennas installed in different places. For the study of telecom data and EMF emission, many machine learning and deep learning techniques have been developed in recent years. Predictive analytics played a bigger part in this. For prediction, it comprises advanced statistics, modeling and more machine learning methodologies. However, the appropriate hyper parameters must be established for the model’s effective prediction, but this cannot be guaranteed in a dynamic environment where the data is always changing. The learning model’s performance improves when these parameters are optimized. The goal of this study is to use the Telecom dataset to create a novel hybrid deep learning model for forecasting the trend of EMF radiations. The patterns were first discovered using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) combined with the Particle Swarm Optimization method (PSO). Later to boost its performance the hybrid approach (MLP-RFD-PSO) was developed and 98.8% accuracy was achieved.

Measurement of Electric and Magnetic Field Strengths under 765 kV UHVAC Single Circuit Transmission Line

Transmission line corridors of developing countries are increasingly dense and expensive with construction of new ultrahigh voltage (UHV) transmission lines. Right of way of transmission line in the corridor, construction cost of transmission lines including towers, is directly influenced by electric and magnetic field strength emission (EMF) of that line. In UHV range, emission of electric and magnetic field strength in the vicinity of lines is of great public concern, as are likely to have hazardous effects to human being when their exposure level exceeds specified limits. Higher the transmission voltage and stronger the electric field. Though the results on effect of EMF on human being is inconclusive, to create awareness to common public and working professional, it is mandatory to measure the emission level of EMF in lateral and longitudinal profile. This paper reports experiences of EMF emission measurement of 765 kV UHVAC quadruple ACSR bundled conductor single circuit transmission line in India. Measurement results of EMF with vegetation is reported.

Exciter–Quadrature–Repeater Transmitter for Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging With High Lateral Misalignment Tolerance and Low EMF Emission

In this article, an exciter–quadrature–repeater transmitter pad is proposed in order to achieve high lateral misalignment tolerance and low leakage flux emission in electric vehicle wireless charging applications. In the proposed WPT system, a single half-bridge inverter unit is needed to energize the exciter coil, which is magnetically coupled to two larger quadrature repeater coils. The currents in the two repeater coils naturally adjust based on the lateral misalignment of the receiver pad to reduce the leakage flux density around the charging zone. The system can maintain zero phase shift between excitation voltage and current and achieve constant current charging conditions with fixed compensation capacitors in the ±150-mm lateral misalignment range. In order to verify the attributes of the proposed wireless power transfer (WPT) system, a 3-kW experiment setup with a 200-mm vertical gap was built and compared to a three-coil WPT system, which consists of a small transmitter coil, a single large repeater coil, and a receiver coil. According to the experiment results, even under extreme 150-mm lateral misalignment, the proposed WPT system has 90.7% coil-to-coil transmission efficiency. Furthermore, it achieves a 30% reduction of leakage flux density compared to the three-coil system in the 150-mm lateral misalignment case.

Lithium Ion Cell/Batteries Electromagnetic Field Reduction in Phones for Hearing Aids Compliance

The Hearing Aid Compatibility Act of 1988 (HAC Act) requires that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ensure that telephones sold/used in the US and its territories are hearing aid compatible. “T-HAC” (Tele-coil Hearing Aid Compatibility) requirements are to ensure that inductive (magnetic) coupling from cell phone does not interfere with the hearing aid’s audio quality. “T-HAC” requirements include three areas: 1) Signal Level 2) Frequency Response 3) Signal Quality (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) Batteries occupy a large percentage of a phone total volume and that leaves limited options to place the phone speaker in locations with minimal EMF interference. The EMF is generated by electrical currents in the phones’ circuit boards and components, including the battery. Therefore, it is important that batteries to have no/limited EMF emission in order to ensure phone speaker audio quality. Li-ion cells, typically, are packaged using either an aluminum-can (prismatic) or laminated layers of Aluminum and polymers, known as Li-ion polymer (LIP). Prismatic cells, generally, consist of jelly-roll with +/-tabs placed on opposite ends of cathode and anode, respectively, before being wound into jelly-roll. The LIP cells, on the other hand, are built using either jelly-roll or cut-and-stacked cathode and anode layers. A polymer membrane electrically insulates cathode from and anode. Organic electrolyte provide Ionic conducting medium for Li-ion to shuttle between anode and cathode during charge and discharge. Therefore, spread/shape of EMF emission depends on the cells construction (stacked electrodes or jelly-roll, +/- tab position on electrodes, and external connectors’ distance) as well as charge/discharge current loads. However, it is important that cell design changes be compatible with the cell mass manufacturing processes. Here, we have investigated design changes leading to EMF emission reduction from Li-ion batteries consisting of a single Li-ion cell or two Li-ion cells contented in parallel. Changes include: 1) cell’s internal +/- tabs locations and length on cathode/anode layers; 2) cell’s external +/- connectors’ spacing, and 3) parallel connected cells arrangement. Fig. 1A shows a schematic of the experimental setup used for measuring the test samples’ EMF emissions under GSM pulse current in frequency range of 12Hz-20 KHz. Fig. 1B shows EMF emission contours along a jelly-roll length (X-direction), with copper foils wound representative of anode and cathode. Fig. 1C shows a schematic of samples with +/- tabs positioned on the opposite, center and same ends of the representative anode and cathode layers: black arrowed lines emphasizing +/- current flow directions. Table-1 shows EMF emission values (maximum and minimum) for the samples in X (length), Y (width) and Z (13 mm above the sample top surface) directions. For this article, we tested EMF emissions on a collection of prismatic and LIP cells with wound electrodes (jelly-roll), LIP cells with cut-stacked electrodes, and two prismatic cells connected in parallel, from three different major cell manufacturers. Results show that the cell’s internal +/- tabs location on cathode/anode, and spacing between the cells external +/- connectors play critical role in reduction of batteries EMF emissions. Effective EMF emission levels of a multi-cell battery (MCB) assembly are impacted by its cells’ arrangement and their external +/-connector current paths. Furthermore, proper EMF arrangement of parallel and/or series connected cells (placed side-by-side or on top of each other) for reducing EMF emission, requires clear understanding of each cell’s internal structure and external +/- current paths. Figure 1

Measurements of EMF Emission of High-Voltage Power Systems

Measurements of EMF Emission of High-Voltage Power Systems

No increased sensitivity in brain activity of adolescents exposed to mobile phone-like emissions

ObjectiveTo examine the potential sensitivity of adolescents to radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF EMF) exposures, such as those emitted by mobile phones. MethodsIn a double-blind, randomized, crossover design, 22 adolescents aged 11–13years (12 males) underwent three experimental sessions in which they were exposed to mobile phone-like RF EMF signals at two different intensities, and a sham session. During exposure cognitive tasks were performed and waking EEG was recorded at three time-points subsequent to exposure (0, 30 and 60min). ResultsNo clear significant effects of RF EMF exposure were found on the waking EEG or cognitive performance. ConclusionsOverall, the current study was unable to demonstrate exposure-related effects previously observed on the waking EEG in adults, and also provides further support for a lack of an influence of mobile phone-like exposure on cognitive performance. SignificanceAdolescents do not appear to be more sensitive than adults to mobile phone RF EMF emissions.

Plasma membrane permeabilization by 60‐ and 600‐ns electric pulses is determined by the absorbed dose

We explored how the effect of plasma membrane permeabilization by nanosecond-duration electric pulses (nsEP) depends on the physical characteristics of exposure. The resting membrane resistance (R(m)) and membrane potential (MP) were measured in cultured GH3 and CHO cells by conventional whole-cell patch-clamp technique. Intact cells were exposed to a single nsEP (60 or 600 ns duration, 0-22 kV/cm), followed by patch-clamp measurements after a 2-3 min delay. Consistent with earlier findings, nsEP caused long-lasting R(m) decrease, accompanied by the loss of MP. The threshold for these effects was about 6 kV/cm for 60 ns pulses, and about 1 kV/cm for 600 ns pulses. Further analysis established that it was neither pulse duration nor the E-field amplitude per se, but the absorbed dose that determined the magnitude of the biological effect. In other words, exposure to nsEP at either pulse duration caused equal effects if the absorbed doses were equal. The threshold absorbed dose to produce plasma membrane effects in either GH3 or CHO cells at either pulse duration was found to be at or below 10 mJ/g. Despite being determined by the dose, the nsEP effect clearly is not thermal, as the maximum heating at the threshold dose is less than 0.01 degrees C. The use of the absorbed dose as a universal exposure metric may help to compare and quantify nsEP sensitivity of different cell types and of cells in different physiological conditions. The absorbed dose may also prove to be a more useful metric than the incident E-field in determining safety limits for high peak, low average power EMF emissions.