title: Exposure assessment of microwave ovens and impact on total exposure in WLANs.
abstract: In situ exposure of electric fields of 11 microwave ovens is assessed in an occupational environment and in an office. Measurements as a function of distance without load and with a load of 275 ml of tap water were performed at distances of <1 m. The maximal measured field was 55.2 V m(-1) at 5 cm from the oven (without load), which is 2.5 and 1.1 times below the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection reference level for occupational exposure and general public exposure, respectively. For exposure at distances of >1 m, a model of the electric field in a realistic environment is proposed. In an office scenario, switching on a microwave oven increases the median field strength from 91 to 145 mV m(-1) (+91 %) in a traditional Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) deployment and from 44 to 92 mV m(-1) (+109 %) in an exposure-optimised WLAN deployment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Technology, Ghent University/iMinds, Gaston Crommenlaan 8, box 201, Ghent B-9050, Belgium.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Plets
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Technology, Ghent University/iMinds, Gaston Crommenlaan 8, box 201, Ghent B-9050, Belgium.
authors.forename: Leen
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Verloock
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Technology, Ghent University/iMinds, Gaston Crommenlaan 8, box 201, Ghent B-9050, Belgium.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Van Den Bossche
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Technology, Ghent University/iMinds, Gaston Crommenlaan 8, box 201, Ghent B-9050, Belgium.
authors.forename: Emmeric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tanghe
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Technology, Ghent University/iMinds, Gaston Crommenlaan 8, box 201, Ghent B-9050, Belgium wout.joseph@intec.uGent.be.
authors.forename: Wout
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Joseph
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Technology, Ghent University/iMinds, Gaston Crommenlaan 8, box 201, Ghent B-9050, Belgium.
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Martens
mesh_terms: D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D006801:Humans; D008872:Microwaves; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D011834:Radiation Monitoring; D011846:Radio Waves; D059015:Wireless Technology