A review of mobile phone usage in enclosed areas and RF safety guideline

The use of mobile phones in metallic enclosed environments such as elevators, train cars and even airplanes has attract a lot of attention in recent years. In these environments, most of the radio frequency (RF) energy from mobile phones remains inside due to the lack of escape routes, resulting in possibility of the field levels exceeding limits described in the international RF safety guidelines. This has resulted in an anxiety on possible health effects of passengers in these environments. In this review paper, size of the passengers (child vs. adult human model), method of investigation (theory vs. numerical), passenger position, elevator structure etc., are briefly discussed to determine how they affect the RF exposure. We also discuss few experimental investigation related to this problem for the passenger using a mobile phone near a metallic wall. Our objective is to provide an understanding of the SAR characteristics of the mobile phone user in such environment and how these characteristics are affected by the aforementioned factors.