Article publication date
May 2025
ARPANSA review date
27 May 2025
Summary
This study measured trend of radiofrequency-electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposures associated with 5G mobile networks (i.e., 3.6 GHz frequency band) across Greece's five largest cities. A continuous monitoring of RF-EMF exposure from mobile networks with frequencies of 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2600 MHz and 3.5 GHz (5G) was conducted over the period of two years (August 2022–October 2024). The trend of exposure over the period was assessed based on median and maximum exposure as well as the ratio of weekly maximum-to-median exposure. The study found that median and maximum 5G RF-EMF exposure recorded were 0.17 volts per metre (V/m) and 4.48 V/m, respectively, which corresponded to 0.3% and 7.3% of the safety limits set by the International Commission on non‐Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), respectively. The median exposure for the 5G frequencies remained the lowest among all mobile phone networks. However, the maximum exposure and the weekly maximum-to-median exposure ratio for the 5G frequency were the highest compared to all other measured mobile phone frequencies.
Published in
Bioelectromagnetics
Link to study
5G EMF Exposure at 3.6 GHz in Greece Using Data From Frequency-Selective Monitoring Sensors
ARPANSA commentary
This study provides some important data on long-term term trend of RF-EMF exposure related to 3.5 GHz 5G network and compares it with the other mobile network frequency in Greece. The exposure levels (median and maximum) reported in the study are well within the limits recommended by the International Commission on non‐Ionizing Radiation Protection guidelines (ICNIRP, 2020). A larger variation in RF-EMF exposure (e.g., maximum compared to median) for 5G frequency band can be attributed to its network characteristics such as, beamforming, beam‐steering, network traffic variation as well as wider bandwidth. The strength of the study is that it investigated relatively long-term trend of RF-EMF exposure for the 5G network utilising the data collected from different cities in Greece. Comparison of the findings from this study with those from other studies study (Bhatt et al., 2024; Loizeau et al., 2022), including an Australian indicated that 5G RF-EMF exposures are comparable to other mobile network exposures (3G or 4G) and remain far below the ICNIRP general public safety limits.
In Australia, RF-EMF exposure levels from radio antennas are below the safety limits set by Australian Safety Standard (RPS-S1) developed by ARPANSA and in line with the 2020 ICNIRP guidelines. It is the assessment of ARPANSA that mobile phone network related RF-EMF exposures, including from the 5G network in Australia, remain very low (Bhatt et al., 2024; Henderson et al., 2023) and therefore pose no health risk for populations.
