A case-study on the effect of averaging duration on RF dosimetry of general public environments

Electromagnetic waves can cause undesirable effects on the human body. These hazards have forced the related certification bodies such as ICNIRP and IEEE to propose standard limitations on the electromagnetic field levels. However, the current recommended procedures demand to verify the safety compliance of each measurement point based on a lengthy and impractical 6 minute averaging, in addition to spatial averaging, which complicates the procedure of RF dosimetry. Our statistical analysis on the performed experimental indoor and outdoor measurements show that lower time interval of measurements, such as 30 seconds and 60 seconds, predicts the same results in common electromagnetic environments affected by wireless networks and broadcasting signals. The overall observed difference between 30 seconds and 6 minute averaging time length from our reference value is less than 50% respectively in 13.5% and 10% of times, illustrating that there is not a significant difference between 30 seconds and 6 minute averaging. This makes the RF dosimetry procedure much faster and less expensive, while reliability is nearly the same.