Volume 4 • Issue 5 • 1000163 J Civil Environ Eng ISSN: 2165-784X JCEE, an open access journal Skountzos et al., J Civil Environ Eng 2014, 4:5 DOI: 10.4172/2165-784X.1000163 Short Communication Open Access The Electromagnetic Pollution of Wireless Electronic Equipment in Areas with High Human Accumulation Antonios P Skountzos 1 , Dimitrios Nikolopoulos 1 *, Ermioni Petraki 1 , Sofia Kottou 2 and Panayotis H Yannakopoulos 1 1 Department of Electronic Computer Systems Engineering, Technological Education Institute of Piraeus, Petrou Ralli and Thivon 250, GR-12244, Aigaleo, Greece 2 University of Athens, Medical School, Department of Medical Physics, Mikras Asias 75, GR-11527 Athens, Greece Abstract Health concerns have been raised, especially following the enormous increase in the use of wireless mobile telephony (GSM, 3G and 4G) throughout the world. A similar situation exists regarding other digital wireless systems, such as data communication networks, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, DECT phones and CB’s which emit in various regions of the spectrum giving rise to cumulative radiation exposure. These concerns have induced a large body of research as mobile devices use electromagnetic waves in the microwave range. In the present work, we have measured the EMF of various emitting devices at different frequencies as well as the contribution of wireless emitting ones in various areas of special interest such as Universities, hospitals, airports. The peaking measurement was at the entrance of the airport (300 mV/m) and the minimum (7 mV/m) in a “neutral University location” with the least human accumulation in comparison with the other studied places. The other studied emitting devices showed a logarithmic decrease, which is significant up to 50 cm away from the base station. *Corresponding author: Dimitrios Nikolopoulos, Department of Electronic Computer Systems Engineering, Technological Education Institute of Piraeus, Petrou Ralli and Thivon 250, GR-12244, Aigaleo, Greece, Tel: 0030-6977-208318; E-mail: dniko@teipir.gr Received November 07, 2014; Accepted December 01, 2014; Published December 07, 2014 Citation: Skountzos AP, Nikolopoulos D, Petraki E, Kottou S, Yannakopoulos PH (2014) The Electromagnetic Pollution of Wireless Electronic Equipment in Areas with High Human Accumulation. J Civil Environ Eng 4: 163. doi:10.4172/2165- 784X.1000163 Copyright: © 2014 Skountzos AP, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Keywords: Communication networks; Electromagnetic radiation; Mobile phones Introduction We are all now living in a “soup” of electromagnetic radiation, irradiated by mobile phones, satellites, broadcast antennas, aviation radar, TVs, computers, wireless internet, wireless LANs in working areas, [1] one billion times stronger than the natural fields in which living cells have developed over the last 3.8 billion years. So far only a few, faint warnings have been raised, mainly by people who are so sensitised to the electromagnetic radiation emitted by mobile devices and Wi-Fi, that they become ill in its presence. e World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 3% of the population are “electro-sensitive”. A 2007 assessment published by the European Commission Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) concluded that the three lines of evidence, viz. animal, in vitro, and epidemiological studies, indicate that “exposure to RF fields is unlikely to lead to an increase in humans” [2-4]. Scientists, doctors and some European governments are adding their voices to the growing alarm that the universal use of mobile devices may herald the start of a medical catastrophe for the future. Mobile phone radiation and health concerns have been raised, especially following the enormous increase in the use of wireless mobile telephony throughout the world (In 2011, there were approximately 6 billion users compared to 2 billion users in 2005, worldwide). is is because mobile phones use electromagnetic waves in the microwave range-frequencies from 1 GHz up to 30 GHz. ese concerns have induced a large body of research both epidemiological and experimental, in animals as well as in humans. A microwave is a type of energy in the form of electromagnetic wave, like radio waves or light waves, that travels with the speed of light (3*10 8 m/s). ese waves are used in radars and other communication systems (to relay long distance telephone signals, TV programs, and computer information across the earth or to a satellite in space). Microwaves are also familiar in cooking, as a heating machine (approximately 2.5 GHz). When frequencies at this range are absorbed, they result in atomic motion (heat) in the water, fat and sugar molecules of the food. Microwaves are reflected by metals, and they are not absorbed by most plastic, glasses and ceramics. Prior to 1996, all cell phones were analogue devices that operated in the lower cellular frequency band than that of digital systems, which were introduced in 1997. e electromagnetic energy given off by cell phones is a type of non-ionizing radiation. Cell phones are portable radio devices that transmit and receive signals from a network of fixed, low-power, base stations. e transmitting power of a cell phone varies, depending on the type of the network and the distance from the base station. e power generally increases as you move farther away from the nearest base station. ere is no evidence that the RF electromagnetic energy from cell phones and other such devices can break chemical bonds. So, it is unlikely to damage the body’s genetic material. Mobile phones have low-power transmitters and most of them have two signal strengths 0.6 W and 3 W with a maximum signal power of 5 W (for comparison, most CB radios transmit at 4 Watts). e base stations are also transmitting at low power. e power of the widely used microwave oven is from 0.5 KW to 1.1 KW. It is useful to compare the radiation of mobile telephones to that of microwave ovens, as mobile phones may operate in an environment that can be roughly modeled as a cavity, (i.e. cars, small rooms with reinforced concrete, outposts). It seems that mobile phones emit negligible radiation compared to the microwave ovens but a simple calculation presents exactly the opposite. If someone uses a mobile phone daily for one hour, the annual power is calculated as follows: 1 h/day×365 days/year×3 W=1,095 Wh/year. J o u r n a l o f C i v il & E n v i r o n m e n t a l E n g i n e e r i n g ISSN: 2165-784X Journal of Civil & Environmental Engineering