I live in NYC and am thinking of taking an office in a small 6 story building. On the 6th floor is a door with access to the roof. On the door is posted a sign that access past this point may expose you to excessive radiation due to the cell transceiver mounted outside.
I don't know where the cell is actually mounted, but I am considering an office on the 5th floor. Let say worst case scenario that the cell is directly above my office. Does anyone think this might pose any health concerns? IS there a simple, inexpensive way to measure the cell radiation in the office?
Despite all of the media hype and fud regarding electric field and micro-wave cancer threats you are perfectly safe. Don't climb the tower, however, as you might fall off.
Mike "check Einstein's Nobel Prize" Yetto
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In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice they are not.
That doesn't mean that it's automatically harmless. Sufficiently strong microwave radiation can cause injury through localised heating.
Cell phones aren't likely to be a problem simply because they're so weak. A cell tower is lot more powerful; if I was going to be spending my working life next to one, I'd want to know the figures.
If the cell antennas are directly overhead, there's very probably very little "radiation" impinging directly downwards, because the guy who designed the antennas wants it to go _outwards_, where the phones are.
I don't think this poses any health concerns - the one at your ear inflicts more "radiation" on your head than a cell tower. (see "inverse square law.") Or for that matter, a TV or radio transmitter. Or the wireless router in the office.
If the "radiation" is in the frequency range that microwave ovens operate at, i.e., the frequencies where if you overrode all six interlocks and stuck your head in the oven, you could cook your eyeballs, but this is highly unlikely, because it's in one of the ISM bands and no signal could get through, because all the microwave ovens, diathermy machines, and so on, would jam it.
When I was in the USAF, I worked on radar jamming transmitters, that put out [CLASSIFIED] (< 1K) watts at [CLASSIFIED] GHz (L, S, C, and X bands), and when we fixed one, we'd do a quick operation check by feeling the antenna. If it made your hand feel warm, you knew it was transmitting. Nobody seemed concerned about getting their testicles cooked, and AFAIK, the other guys went on and sired babies; I can't directly address that, because I'm childfree by choice.
If you're paranoid about "radiation," then simply wear a mu-metal hat (tinfoil optional) whenever you go outside into the solar "radiation!"
That's a good one. There is nothing in a cell tower that would cause that much radiation. Call the city health department and ask how them why they allowed such a device to be installed in the city limits. I'll bet that sign won't be around for long.
Buy a box of duct tape and tin foil and begin sealing off your office.
Don't worry about it. The cell tower sends the same data, to the same distance, as a cellphone, so it doesn't use any higher power. It just turns on a lot more often (because it serves multiple cell phones). The antenna is intended to project horizontally, so mostly it's not directing energy downward.
The cellphone tower might also have some microwave horn antennae, to connect to nearby towers. Don't stand in front of those, if you can help it.
The microwave link between repeaters is probably the only source of radiation you need be concerned about. But they are highly directional. Regular GSM/CDMA G2/G3/G4 is low wattage and not considered a risk (depending on who you talk to.)
** Is that a theorem in RF engineering ? Don't think so.
When NASA want to communicate with a space probe, do they use similar powered gear to the probe?
There is a cell phone antenna farm on top of a 6 story building array near where I live that uses about 20 high gain vertical array antennas. Each antenna covers about 20 degrees horizontally and has a very narrow vertical beam aimed at ( or just below) the horizon.
Eve if the transmitted RF power were no more than a cell phone, the field strength has gotta be 20 or 30dB higher.
Inverse square law. If a cellphone tower, usually powered in the range of tens of watts, does any harm to people at dozens meters to it, then a cellphone with several hundreds milliwatts output in your pocket *must* fry your testicles.
The answer is therefore: you're perfectly safe in that office. Don't however put the tower itself near your pockets or you're looking for troubles.
Microwave radiation is non-ionizing and cannot break molecular bonds to cause cancer. The radiation would need to have a frequency higher than the visible spectrum. The threshold is within the ultra-violet portion of the spectrum which is why you can get cancer from extreme exposure to sunlight, but not the radio waves that are present everywhere.
Heating would occur if you stood directly in a very strong beam, but you'd notice before you baked.
Mike "no worries, mate" Yetto
--
In theory, theory and practice are the same.
In practice they are not.
The current U.S. standard for radiation exposure from cell phone towers is 580-1,000 microwatts per sq. cm. (mW/cm2), among the least protective in the world. More progressive European countries have set standards 100 to 1,000 times lower than the U.S. Compare Australia at 200 microwatts, Russia, Italy, and Toronto, Canada at 10, China at 6, and Switzerland, at 4. In Salzburg, Austria the level is .1 mircowatts (pulsed), 10,000 times less than the U.S. New Zealand has proposed yet more stringent levels, at .02 microwatts, 50,000 times more protective than the U.S. standard.
Nope, bad guess. It is -entirely- possible to cook meat with sufficient field strength. Generally (and if memory serves), cell towers can deliver kilowatts; they're placed high-up to improve the range and the large distance to ground structures and people helps minimize physical risk. Just how much field strength is tolerable, and over what period of time, is not clear. Studies alternately claim "some risk" and "none":
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U.S. regulations tend to be more stringent than those in Europe, and that's good but again there isn't much conclusive evidence for tolerable field strength.
The OP should ask building maintenance people whether there is any additional shielding in walls or ceilings on upper floors; whether there is a routine field strength audit of upper floors, and if so, what's in the latest report.
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