RF Workers

Access to areas close to base station antennas where international exposure guidelines may be exceeded is restricted to authorised personnel.

Before entering a base station or antenna site, personnel should comply with the up-to-date technical and safety information provided by their employer, the site management company, and any relevant local safety requirement.

Exposure limits for EMF workers are higher than for the general public because workers are adults who are generally exposed under known conditions and are trained to be aware of potential risk and to take appropriate precautions.

The vast majority of over-exposures result in no symptoms at all because of the large safety margin in the standards. However, a suspected over-exposure should be immediately referred to management and/or as provided by relevant local regulations to determine if further action is required.

The GSMA has developed practical guidance for personnel working at base station and antenna sites to make sure applicable exposure guidelines are not exceeded. It is primarily directed at RF workers but some content will be relevant to other workers (for example, rooftop workers) who may have reason to come close to transmitting equipment.

The GSMA guidance is not intended to replace existing company procedures or relevant regulatory requirements for RF workers, which should always take precedence.

Occupational exposure to RF fields from base station antennas on rooftops, Alanko et al., Annals of Telecommunications, 63(1-2):February 2008

Occupational exposure to radiofrequency fields in antenna towers, Alanko et al., Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 123(4):537-539, 1 March 2007

Occupational Exposure to Radio Frequency/Microwave Radiation and the Risk of Brain Tumors: Interphone Study Group, Germany, Berg et al., Am. J. Epidemiol., 164(6):538-548, September 15, 2006

Epidemiology of Health Effects of Radiofrequency Exposure, ICNIRP (International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) Standing Committee on Epidemiology, Environmental Health Perspectives, 112(17):1741-1754, December 2004

Characterization of the Electromagnetic Energy Absorption of the Human Body Exposed to the Radiation of Base Station Antennas, Christ et al, Proceedings of the 29th Annual Meeting of the Bioelectromagnetics Society (BEMS 2007), pp. 200--201, Kanazawa, Japan, June 2007

Assessment of occupational exposure to radiofrequency fields and radiation, Cooper et al., Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 111(2):191-203, 15 September 2004

Determination of safety distance limits for a human near a cellular base station antenna, adopting the IEEE standard or ICNIRP guidelines,Cooper et al., Bioelectromagnetics, 23(6):429-443, September 2002

Occupational Exposure to Electric and Magnetic Fields in the Context of the ICNIRP Guidelines,Cooper, NRPB- W24, September 2002

Fixed radio transmitter sites; Exposure to non-ionising electromagnetic fields; Guidelines for working conditions, European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Technical Report 101 870 V1.1.1, November 2001

Exposure to electromagnetic fields - physical agents (electromagnetic fields), European Union, Last updated: 20 March 2008.

Determination of RF fields in the vicinity of mobile communication base stations for the purpose of evaluating human exposure, International Electrotecnical Commission (IEC) 62232 Ed. 1.0. Accessed 16 September 2008.

IEEE Recommended Practice for Radio Frequency Safety Programs, 3 kHz to 300 GHz, IEEE International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (Standards Coordinating Committee 39), C95.7-2005, 2006.

Medical Aspects Of Radiofrequency Radiation Overexposure, IEEE Committee on Man and Radiation (COMAR), Health Physics, 82(3):387-391, March 2002.

Comparison of safety distances based on the electromagnetic field and based on the SAR for occupational exposure of a 900-MHz base station antenna, Joseph et al., Electromagnetic Compatibility, IEEE Transactions on, 47(4):977-985, November 2005.

Specific absorption rate assessment near a base-station antenna (2,140 MHz): some key points, Lacroux et al., Annals of Telecommunications, 63(1-2):55-64, February 2008.

A novel convenient EMF safety concept for workers near mobile base station antennas, Klemens Martin, ITU-T Workshop “Human exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs), Geneva, 20 November 2007.

Radio-frequency electromagnetic fields associated with cellular-radio cell-site antennas, Petersen et al., Bioelectromagnetics, 13(6):527-542, 1992.

Turvallinen työskentely tukiasemien lähellä, Työterveyslaitos, 2006.