title: Assessment of occupational exposure to radiofrequency fields and radiation.
abstract: The use of personal monitors for the assessment of exposure to radiofrequency fields and radiation in potential future epidemiological studies of occupationally exposed populations has been investigated. Data loggers have been developed for use with a commercially available personal monitor and these allowed personal exposure records consisting of time-tagged measurements of electric and magnetic field strength to be accrued over extended periods of the working day. The instrumentation was worn by workers carrying out tasks representative of some of their typical daily activities at a variety of radio sites. The results indicated significant differences in the exposures of workers in various RF environments. A number of measures of exposure have been examined with a view to assessing possible exposure metrics for epidemiological studies. There was generally a good correlation between a given measure of electric field strength and the same measure of magnetic field strength.
authors.affiliation: National Radiological Protection Board, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0RQ, UK. tim.cooper@nrpb.org
authors.forename: T G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Blackwell
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Litchfield
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Mann
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Pope
authors.forename: M J A
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: van Tongeren
mesh_terms: D001822:Body Burden; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D008904:Miniaturization; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011835:Radiation Protection / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D011846:Radio Waves; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013685:Telecommunications