Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
I wish to express my thanks to Dr Trevor Boal and Mr Morrie Facci from the Victorian
Health Department for much of the information on exposure levels from police radio
equipment. The permission of the Executive General Manager, Telecom Research
Laboratories, to publish this paper is hereby acknowledged.
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The exposure limits for the community are set at one-fifth of the lowest
occupational levels in recognition of the fact that the general community
encompasses babies, old people, sick and infirm persons and, those who, by
virtue of living next to a transmitter site, may be exposed to the radiation for
up to 24hours a day.
All cases of neoplasms of the blood leading to invalidity retirement for the
period 1 July 1976 to 30 December 1982 from the Australian Public Service
and Telecom were obtained from the Australian Government Retirement
Benefits Office. There were 119 cases of which twenty-five (21 per cent)
involved Telecom staff. Of the 287,614 contributors, 28 per cent were
Telecom staff. Analysis of the twenty-five Telecom cases did not show an
over-representation of any work designation for leukaemia. Within the
limitation of this study there is no evidence of Telecom operations causing an
excess of leukaemia cases in staff (Hocking 1984).
Another study, independent of Telecom, was carried out by Hollows & Douglas
(1984) who investigated the incidence of lens opacities in the eyes of Telecom radiolinemen. Hollows and Douglas examined with a slit-lamp the lenses of Telecom radiolinemen and age-matched controls. The exposed sample consisted of persons who had
worked for fifteen or more years as radio-linemen and were over forty-five years of
age but less than sixty years of age. The controls were mail sorters. The results of this
study found that posterior subcapsular opacities occurred in 21 per cent of radiolinemen and 8 per cent of controls.
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Exposure Measurements
Table 1 contains measurements of typical exposures for specific classes of equipment
in use by police and law enforcement personnel in Australia. Many of the radios are
not operated continuously and typically have a duty cycle of around 5 per cent. To
find the time averaged exposure level the measured level should therefore be
multiplied by 0.05.
As a general rule of thumb, for devices transmitting around 100 W a separation
distance of 60 cm (an arms length) is required to achieve compliance with the
Australian Standard. Where possible, vehicular antennas should be located as far as
practicable from occupants. Covert antennas should not be located in the head rests of
vehicles.
Portable radios
Close to the antennas of devices operating below 1000 MHz and with output powers
of less than 7 W, the measured levels can exceed the occupational exposure limits in
the Australian Standard.
Even though these devices are exempt from compliance, questions have been
asked about the legitimacy of the exemption given that exposure levels may exceed
the limits. Very recent work at Telecom Research Laboratories has shown that the
underlying basis for the exclusion clause is scientifically based and little or no thermal
response is elicited in operators of exempt portable RF devices (Joyner 1989).
Portable radios that are not covered by the exclusion clause, such as high power
backpack units, have to be treated on a case by case basis but, in general, the duty cycle of
typical transmissions needs to be taken into account.
Radio maintenance
Technicians maintaining radio equipment should minimise exposures through the use
of dummy loads and safe work procedures. Maintenance personnel should be involved
in the formulation of the safe work procedures.
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Table 1
Typical Exposure Levels for Specific Equipment Classes
Equipment Type
Antenna Mounting
Hand Held
Police motorcycle
above rear wheel
Police motorcycle
above rear wheel
PCM Hawk
(100 W 4.78 GHz)
Source: Author's own measurements plus measurements supplied by the Radiation Section,
Department of Health and Community Services, Victoria.
Conclusion
A number of conclusions can be drawn from the previous discussions. These are:
the RF exposure levels to which police and law enforcement personnel are
exposed are, in general, lower than the recommended limits in the Australian
Standard;
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specific operational procedures may need to be introduced with the use and
maintenance of some equipment in order to ensure compliance with the
Australian Standard.
References
Garson, O.M., McRoberts, T.L., Campbell, L.J., Hocking, B. & Gordon, I. 1991, A
chromosonal study of workers with long-term exposure to radio frequency radiation,
Medical Journal of Australia, no. 155, pp. 28992.
Hocking, B. 1984, Neoplasms of the Blood, Occupational Health Services, Paper
No. 6, Telecom Australia.
Hocking, B. & Joyner, K.H. 1991, 'Health risk management of radio frequency
radiation', Journal of Occupational Health & Safety: Australia and New Zealand,
vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 2130.
Hollows, F.C. & Douglas, J.B. 1984, 'Microwave cataract in radiolinemen and
controls', Lancet, no. 2, p. 406.
Joyner, K.H. 1989, 'Microwave cataract and litigation: a case study', Health
Physics, no. 57, pp. 5459.
Joyner, K.H., Lubinas, V., Wood, M.P., Saribalas, J. & Adams, J.A. 1992, 'Radio
frequency radiation (rfr) exposures from mobile phones', Proceedings of the IRPA
(Intensification of Research in Priority Areas) 8th World Congress, Montreal,
May 1721.
Standards Australia 1991, Australian Standard AS2772.1 Radio Frequency Radiation,
Part 1: Maximum Exposure Levels, 100 kHz300 GHz, North Sydney.
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