Researchers from the GOLIAT project have developed and applied a new protocol for measuring radiofrequency pollution from mobile devices and 5G base stations. It includes three different scenarios of gadget use: airplane mode without data transfer, normal mode with data exchange enabled, and intensive traffic mode.
The field study was conducted in Switzerland, which was one of the first in Europe to deploy 5G networks on a large scale. The results are published in the journal Environmental Research .
In the cities of Zurich and Basel and the villages of Hergiswil, Willisau and Dagmersellen, a “landing party” of project participants with equipment in backpacks “landed”. They measured the level of the electromagnetic field of the radio frequency range (EMF RF) at more than 30,000 points.
In airplane mode, radio frequency pollution in the 5G range is created only by base stations. According to measurements, its level depends on the population density:
- in rural areas – 0.17 milliwatts per square meter (mW/m²),
- in Basel – 0.33 MW/m²,
- in Zurich – 0.48 MW/m².
“The highest levels were found in urban business districts and public transport. They are more than a hundred times lower than international guideline values,” said epidemiologist Martin Rössli from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH).
In normal phone operation mode, radiation increased to an average of 6-7 mW/m². In cities, it was still higher than in rural areas.
“The study showed that the environmental impact is lower when the density of base stations is low. However, in such a situation, the radiation from mobile phones is orders of magnitude higher. This has a paradoxical consequence: the typical mobile phone user is more exposed to RF EMF in areas with low density of base stations,” explained PhD student Adriana Fernandez Veludo from Swiss TPH.
“It should be remembered that in our study the phone was about 30 cm away from the measuring device, which means the results may underestimate the actual exposure. The mobile phone user holds it closer to the body, and thus the exposure to RF EMF may be 10 times higher,” she added.
