Assessment Methods for Demonstrating Compliance With Safety Limits of Wireless Devices Used in Home and Office Environments

Short-range wireless radio-frequency devices are rapidly pervading home and office environments. Nevertheless, their contribution to the electromagnetic field exposure of humans has not yet been systematically assessed, nor have the procedures for testing compliance been developed. In this paper, we have assessed the range of exposure in terms of the dosimetric and incident field quantities for devices of the most common technologies, i.e., digital enhanced cordless telecommunications, wireless local area networks and Bluetooth, as well as wireless communication devices based on proprietary standards in the frequency range from 30 MHz to 6 GHz. Well-defined procedures to obtain the worst case operational modes are presented. Since operation in the near-field of these devices cannot be excluded, dosimetric evaluation is the most straightforward technique for testing compliance when low-power exclusions are not applicable. The suitability of the suggested methods is demonstrated through the examination of five classes of short-range transmitters.