RF-EMF electromagnetic environment IN the West Bank, Palestine.

Abstract

With the increase in the distribution of sources of electromagnetic fields in the environment, public exposure to non-ionizing radiation emitted from these sources will increase and change with time. This work aims at the evaluation of public exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields in the West Bank and compares this exposure with previous studies with a time interval difference of 11 years. Measurements of exposure were conducted in the outdoor environment in 149 locations using tri-axial E-field frequency-selective personal exposure meter EME SPY 140 enabling measurements of electric field strength in 14 predefined frequency bands in the range from 80 to 6 GHz. The average field strength from all sources in all investigated locations was 1.4 Vm-1. The maximum exposure measured at any location in the country was 7.43 Vm-1 and was found in Ramallah City center. The exposure quotient corresponding to this value was about 19 times below unity. The total exposure quotient for all locations was 0.001 with FM broadcasting being the main contributor by about 36%, UMTS2100 downlink by 24%, GSM 900 downlink contributing by 17%, WiFi 5GHz by 9% GSM 1800 downlink by 5%. Seven other RF sources contributed together by only 9% including WiMax, TV, WiFi 2 GHz, and others. More than 90% of the electric field strength values were below the level of 3 Vm-1. Within 11 years the average total exposure coefficient increased by a factor of about 2.