Safety Assessment of Occupational Electromagnetic Exposure for Subway Attendant by Leaky Coaxial Cable

The subway attendant is exposed to the radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic exposure of leaky coaxial cable (LCX) which was employed for the subway wireless communication system on the subway platform. To effectively evaluate the safety of subway attendant in this electromagnetic environment, the LCX and human model have been numerically designed. The induced electric field ( E -field) and specific absorption rate (SAR) in the human body were obtained by the finite element software HFSS (High Frequency Structure Simulator). Results show that the maximum E -field value in the human tissues at 0.9, 1.8 and 2.4 GHz are 1.7850 × 10 −2 V/m, 3.9995 × 10 −2 V/m and 8.6827 × 10 −2 V/m, respectively, and the maximum SAR value in the human tissues are 1.3017 × 10 −7 W/kg, 1.3267 × 10 −6 W/kg and 3.6487 × 10 −6 W/kg, respectively. It can be found that the induced E -field and SAR in the human tissues increases with frequency. Simulation results at three frequencies were compared with the occupational electromagnetic exposure limits by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). Results were well below the ICNIRP limits, which indicate that the health risk of the subway attendant exposed to RF electromagnetic on the subway platform is very low.