Assessment of Electromagnetic Field Exposure on European Roads: A Comprehensive In Situ Measurement Campaign

2023 · No effect · Insufficient evidence

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No effectInsufficient evidencePaper 417

Study snapshot

Publicationmanual · 2023

Study typeexposure_assessment

Reported directionNo effect

Evidence ratingInsufficient

Abstract

Assessment of Electromagnetic Field Exposure on European Roads: A Comprehensive In Situ Measurement Campaign Atanasova GL, Atanasov BN, Atanasov NT. Assessment of Electromagnetic Field Exposure on European Roads: A Comprehensive In Situ Measurement Campaign. Sensors (Basel). 2023 Jun 30;23(13):6050. doi: 10.3390/s23136050. Abstract The rapid evolution of wireless communication technologies (such as fifth-generation (5G) cellular networks) in the last years has allowed connecting different objects (from wearable electronics to vehicles) and people through communication networks, and at the same time, has led to widespread deployment of base stations. Along with this growth, questions about the potential adverse effects on human health due to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from base station antennas have also been raised. In this paper, we focus on the assessment of EMFs in automobiles during short (between cities) and long (between countries) trips on several European roads. Comprehensive measurement campaigns were carried out in several European countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, and the Republic of Serbia. The results show that the median total electric field is 0.23-0.24 V/m in Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, and the Republic of Serbia. In Austria and Slovenia, the median is 0.28-0.31 V/m. Austria demonstrated the highest value for the total electric field, at 17.4 V/m. Conclusions In conclusion, this paper provides for the first time results from the comprehensive in situ measurement of the EMFs in a car cabin during travel on part of several European roads (E60, E61, E65, E70, E75, and E80). The measurements were performed in seven European countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, and the Republic of Serbia in the period April 2022–April 2023. The total distance over which the measurements were carried out was more than 1900 km. We found that the higher maximal values of the electric field are observed in the car cabin when driving on roads that pass through large cities or ring roads of large cities. In Austria, the highest maximal value of 17.4 V/m was observed on the Vienna Ring Road. In addition, higher maximum values were measured for Zagreb Ring Road, Bologne Ring Road, Padoue Ring Road, Ljubljana Ring Road, and Beograd. The highest measured value was 14.59 V/m on the Ez-axis. The lowest Etotal value in all roads was 0.11 V/m. The lowest measured value was 0.047 V/m on the Ez-axis. Moreover, the data show that the exposure of car drivers and passengers during travel on European roads is below the ICNIRP reference level [17]. These data may be also helpful for the exposure assessment during in vitro and in vivo experiments. With the comparison of existing measurement campaigns [7,8,9,10,12,13,14,15,18,19,20,21,39], we present results for the E-field in a complex environment due to the semi-resonant nature of the vehicle body. The presented information for the field strength of Ex, Ey, and Ez components serves as an indication for the orientation of the electric field, which is valuable for the design of both new absorbers of EMF for the car cabin and new flexible rectennas for EMF energy harvesting in vehicles. Future studies will address the exposure assessment of car drivers and passengers during an ongoing voice call and data transmission in car generic wireless communications scenarios and new V2X communication scenarios as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P), and vehicle-to-network (V2N) communications. Open access paper: mdpi.com

Machine Enhanced Logic

AI evidence extraction

Structured fields below were generated from the paper’s abstract and metadata to make the evidence easier to inspect. Automated extraction may be incomplete or incorrect; verify important details against the original paper.

Study typeexposure_assessment

Effect directionno_effect

PopulationNot supplied

Sample sizeNot supplied

Exposureshort (between cities) and long (between countries) trips; measurement period April 2022–April 2023; >1900 km total

Evidence strengthInsufficientConfidence: 74% · Peer reviewed: yes

Main findings

In situ measurements of electric fields in car cabins during travel on European roads found median total electric field values of 0.23–0.24 V/m in Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, and the Republic of Serbia, and 0.28–0.31 V/m in Austria and Slovenia. The highest reported total electric field was 17.4 V/m (Vienna Ring Road, Austria), with higher maxima observed on roads passing through large cities/ring roads; reported exposures during travel were below the ICNIRP reference level.

Outcomes measured

In-car cabin electric field strength (total E-field, Ex/Ey/Ez components)
Median total electric field (V/m) by country
Maximum and minimum measured electric field values (V/m)
Comparison to ICNIRP reference level

Limitations

Frequency range/bands measured are not specified in the provided abstract
Measurement instrumentation and protocol details are not provided in the provided abstract
No health outcomes were assessed; exposure-only study
Sample size (number of trips/vehicles/measurement points) not stated in the provided abstract

View raw extracted JSON

{
  "study_type": "exposure_assessment",
  "exposure": {
    "band": null,
    "source": "base station (ambient wireless communications)",
    "frequency_mhz": null,
    "sar_wkg": null,
    "duration": "short (between cities) and long (between countries) trips; measurement period April 2022–April 2023; >1900 km total"
  },
  "population": null,
  "sample_size": null,
  "outcomes": [
    "In-car cabin electric field strength (total E-field, Ex/Ey/Ez components)",
    "Median total electric field (V/m) by country",
    "Maximum and minimum measured electric field values (V/m)",
    "Comparison to ICNIRP reference level"
  ],
  "main_findings": "In situ measurements of electric fields in car cabins during travel on European roads found median total electric field values of 0.23–0.24 V/m in Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, and the Republic of Serbia, and 0.28–0.31 V/m in Austria and Slovenia. The highest reported total electric field was 17.4 V/m (Vienna Ring Road, Austria), with higher maxima observed on roads passing through large cities/ring roads; reported exposures during travel were below the ICNIRP reference level.",
  "effect_direction": "no_effect",
  "limitations": [
    "Frequency range/bands measured are not specified in the provided abstract",
    "Measurement instrumentation and protocol details are not provided in the provided abstract",
    "No health outcomes were assessed; exposure-only study",
    "Sample size (number of trips/vehicles/measurement points) not stated in the provided abstract"
  ],
  "evidence_strength": "insufficient",
  "confidence": 0.74,
  "peer_reviewed_likely": "yes",
  "keywords": [
    "electromagnetic fields",
    "EMF exposure",
    "in situ measurement",
    "car cabin",
    "automobiles",
    "European roads",
    "base stations",
    "5G",
    "electric field",
    "ICNIRP"
  ],
  "suggested_hubs": [
    {
      "slug": "occupational-exposure",
      "weight": 0.32,
      "reason": "Exposure assessment relevant to drivers/passengers during travel; not explicitly occupational but transport context."
    },
    {
      "slug": "who-icnirp",
      "weight": 0.6,
      "reason": "Findings are explicitly compared to ICNIRP reference levels."
    }
  ]
}

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AI-extracted fields are generated from the abstract and metadata and may be incomplete or incorrect. This material is for informational purposes and is not medical advice.

Identifiers and source

DOI: 10.3390/s23136050
PubMed: Not supplied

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