Effect of the Operation Mode and Distance on the Electromagnetic Radiation Emitted by Mobile Phone Devices in Greece: A Pilot Study

Abstract

The electromagnetic radiation (EMR) emitted by mobile phone devices (n=52) has been monitored as a function of the operation mode and the distance from the device. Measurements (electric field, V/m) were administered in the metropolitan area of Athens, Greece and involved a total of 52 mobile phone devices operating in the 1.5 GHZ-2.1 GHz frequency range. Five distinct operation modes of the device (“long term inactivity”, “ringing/call effort”, “usage”, “right after the end of the call”, “short term inactivity”) and a total of two distances from the device (0 m and 1 m) were employed. Depending on the intensity of the individual peaks observed in the experimental spectra at 0 m, the mobile devices were shown to cluster into three subgroups as follows: Subgroup 1 (n1=24, peak intensities>1 V/m), Subgroup 2 (n2=9, peak intensities in the range of 0.1 V/m - 1 V/m), Subgroup 3 (n3=19, peak intensities<0.1 V/m). Statistical analysis via repeated-measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) provided evidence for a statistically significant effect of the operation mode on the emitted EMR by the mobile device. The effect was more prominent at the shortest distance (0 m) and for the devices of one specific subgroup (Subgroup 1). The transition between operation modes which shows the largest effect (increase) in the emitted EMR is the one from “long term inactivity” to “Ringing/Call effort” irrespective of device subgroup. Examination of the effect of the distance on the emitted EMR resulted to the following findings: At the longer distance employed (1 m), the devices belonging to Subgroups 2 and 3 continue to exhibit mean EMR intensity similar to the one at 0 m under all operation modes. On the other hand, upon distance increase, the emitted EMR intensity of the devices belonging to Subgroup 1 displays a statistically significant decrease in all operation modes except the one of ‘long term inactivity”.