Vegetal barriers for minimising electromagnetic pollution at cellular phone bands

The use of rows of trees as barriers to minimise electromagnetic pollution in sensitive areas, such as hospitals, kindergartens or geriatric residences, is proposed and tested by means of measurements in actual scenarios. Attenuation induced by individual trees has been measured at GSM and UMTS bands over 18 samples from four different species. Results show diverse degrees of attenuation with certain dependence on the species, and even on the specimen. Then, a row of apple trees has been used to check its utility as a barrier for reducing the power levels in its shadow area, becoming an efficient and natural solution to minimise electromagnetic pollution.