Electromagnetic Field Zones Around an Antenna for Human Exposure Assessment: Evaluation of the human exposure to EMFs

The regulatory framework on human exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) is a crucial task that the telecommunication operators and the authorities have to face. Some procedures have been introduced in standards, based on both computations and measurements, for the assessment of the compliance of the radio transmitters to the given EMF limits. The procedures could vary depending on the position of the observation point around the transmitting antennas. In this article, the definitions of EMF zones and the zone's boundaries around an antenna are revised and tailored for the evaluation of human exposure to the EMFs. The space around the antenna is sectioned into three regions: reactive, radiating near field, and far field. The analytical and numerical results are used to support the proposed region's boundaries. Some examples of region boundaries are given for a few antenna types.