Time dependence of environmental electric field measurements and analysis of cellular base stations

It is well-known that the rapid growth of the mobile telecommunication networks all over the world has raised the concern about the adverse health effects. Today some authorities and universities collaborate together for the measurements of the Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) at the locations close to the base stations. Continuous monitoring of EMF intensity at living spaces is vital to ensure its level complies with the limits set by international authorities. Measurement of EMF intensity in a medium can be performed either sequentially by a moveable agent or continuously by a single point agent. In this paper, the single point method is adopted to track the time-dependent characteristics of the electric field of a base station. It is found that electromagnetic fields generated by the base station change according to the mobile user traffic, which is time-dependent. EMF levels around the base stations are measured on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, and comparisons are compared with the limits set by the International Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNI RP). It is observed that maximum and minimum electric fields are found to be E max =2.36 V/m and E min = 1.18 V/m, respectively.