Article publication date
May 2026
ARPANSA review date
May 2026
Summary
This study characterised the changes in background radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF EMF) exposure during pre- and post-rollout of 5G telecommunication services in Switzerland. RF-EMF exposure with the frequency between 80 MHz and 6 GHz was measured across 876 environments (including outdoor environments and public transports) during pre- and post 5G era. The changes in RF-EMF exposure levels between baseline (2021/22) and follow-up (2023/24) measurements in the same 342 environments were evaluated. The results show that overall total median background RF-EMF levels remained stable between 2021/22 (0.16-0.24 V/m) and 2023/24 (0.17-0.25 V/m). The study concluded that the introduction of 5G in Switzerland did not lead to an overall increase in total background RF-EMF levels from mobile telecommunication technologies.
Published in
Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology
Link to study
Commentary by ARPANSA
This article reports one of the largest studies conducted to date, providing a comprehensive assessment of background RF-EMF exposure in Switzerland. The findings of the study confirm that background exposure is far below the ICNIRP safety limits, confirming earlier findings from other countries (Selmaoui et al., 2021; Kiouvrekis et al., 2026) including Australia (Bhatt et al., 2024) that the introduction of the 5G network had no or little effect on total RF-EMF exposure. These measurements provide reassurance that background exposure remains well below the public safety limit, even after the 5G network roll out. ARPANSA’s assessment is that there is no substantiated scientific evidence that RF-EMF exposure (including from 5G) below the limits set in the ARPANSA safety standard poses a health risk.
