EMR and health issues

While any antenna is a beauty to behold, it's probably not a beauty if held.

In our Amateur training we should have heard that an RF burn can be bad. We Amateurs are obliged to consider the EMR effects on casual passers-by, and our families and neighbours.

The ACA released advice on Electro-Magnetic Radiation (EMR) and health
issues on Monday this week. It was mainly aimed at mobile phone users,
however, it's worth going around this subject again for other radio users.

There is a new web site from which you'll find links to ARPANSA (Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency) and its specific advice on non-ionising radiation (as in radio) and ionising radiation (as in X-rays, and to a limited extent, computer monitors!)

There are also the self-assessment guidelines from May 2002 at the ACA's
site "Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Radiation: Guidelines for assessing fixed transmitters" that is a relatively small PDF file (94kB


References:
http://www.arpansa.gov.au/
http://emr.aca.gov.au/
http://www.aca.gov.au/consumer_info/issues_alerts/self_assessment.htm

Peter Ellis VK1KEP

Source: Wireless Institute of Australia

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