Dragan Poljak
ABSTRACT:
Tutorial aims to review various aspects of undesired human exposure to non-ionizing radiation generated by artificial sources. The Tutorial includes the basic ideas of electrosmog, coupling mechanisms between humans and electromagnetic fields, biological effects of
electromagnetic fields, electromagnetic-thermal dosimetry models same as analytical/numerical solution methods, international/national safety guidelines, relevant exposure limits and safety measures. First, some theoretical and experimental methods of incident field dosimetry for the assessment of external fields due to low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF) sources are given. Illustrative examples deals with power lines, transformer substations, PLC systems, RFID antennas and radio base stations. Furthermore, the tutorial presents some electromagnetic-thermal dosimetry methods for the assessment of human exposure to low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF) and transient electromagnetic radiation featuring the use of integral/differential equation formulations and related numerical solution procedures (primarily based on the use of Boundary Element Method – BEM, and Finite Element method – FEM) for the calculation of induced current densities, internal fields and specific absorption rate (SAR). Also, for HF exposures the related temperature increase in tissues is of interest. Computational examples pertaining to various realistic exposure scenarios, such as; pregnant woman/foetus exposed to low frequency (LF) fields, the human eye, the human brain and the human head exposed to HF
electromagnetic fields will be given.
The obtained numerical results for induced current densities, internal fields and SAR are compared against exposure limits proposed by ICNIRP (International Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection).
Finally, the last part of the Tutorial deals with deterministic stochastic-modeling through which one takes into account the influence of the variability in the morphology and the tissue properties of the organs, (such as the brain and eye) to the electromagnetic-thermal response
of the body.