Health and safety with RF broadcast radiation

The difficulty is that the bioelectromagnetic effects are not always direct safety hazards. There may be changes of mental attitude and increases in stress levels. These are not so obvious as safety hazards as the cooking effects of microwave radiation. Thus there needs to be a discussion of the consequences of these effects and an appreciation of the way they need to be recognised in the working practices. The object of this paper is to discuss the requirements of safety and how these apply to broadcast transmitters. Of special interest is the exposure of people to near-field radiation during the course of their work and the effects of low-level fields on the general public. There is also a discussion of the appropriate methods of measuring the field strength at these levels. As part of the introduction it is worth stressing that there is a distinct difference between ionising radiation (the problem in the nuclear industry) and nonionising radiation. The two types of radiation lead to quite different problems and the consequences on respective safety procedures are great