Radiations of GSM Base Station Antenna And Its Health Consequences- A Research conducted in Nigeria

In Nigeria 98% of Global System for Mobile (GSM) base stations (cell sites) are sited within 20 meters from residential, offices, schools, business buildings. Cell phone antennas emit microwave frequencies, which are nonionizing radiation. A research was conducted by measuring field data of radiation from GSM base antennas in Nigeria for supporting evidence public health risks from gsm radiations that are documented in published scientific studies in respected, peer-reviewed journals. Therefore, measurements of the exposure levels of radio frequency (RF) Electromagnetic energy (EME) radiated from Mobile telephone base stations were conducted in following manner. The base stations antenna on these sites are the more common panel antenna, which divide the area around the base station into three sectors (i.e. = 1200, = 1200, and = 1200). With this arrangement of the three Antennas all the region around the base stations are covered. All measurements were made with an Agilent Technologies model E4407B ESA-E series spectrum analyzer. A horn antenna that was connected to the analyzer via a coaxial cable, received the measured signals over the frequency bands of interest. This was extremely sensitive equipment which accurately measured RF background even in rural areas far from any transmitters.

of cellular telephones have been reported to exert adverse effects on vital biological molecules i.e. genotoxicity ion leakage and changes in cell membrane permeability A number of reports showed that RF can enhance the effect of a chemical mutagen and thus indirectly exert genotoxic effect . Some studies have given evidence for an excitation of resonant oscillations in chain molecules, e.g. for certain proteins and DNA molecules, within the RF signal range. Allegedly, they may lead to structural changes and chain breaks also in the non-thermal EMF range, thus being a potential (genotoxic) EMF interaction mechanism. In the study of Fereirra et al. MDA and carbonyl contents revealed no evidence of oxidative damage caused by RFEMF using rat frontal cortex. However, comparison between studies is somewhat difficult and it is mostly due to variations in field conditions like frequency, modulation, specific absorption rate and/or RF-EMF homogeneity and duration of RF exposure. The single cell gel electrophoresis or comet assay quantitatively measures DNA damage resolved as strand breaks in individual nuclei. The comet assay has been suggested as one method for monitoring human exposure to genotoxic agents .It has been stated by many studies that higher plants can be used as monitors of environmental mutagens and that results obtained using them as model systems could be extrapolated to higher animals since they are both eukaryotic organisms So, the aim of this study was to determine 1) whether short term exposure to EMF at 900MHz can induce damage to biological molecules as evaluated by MDA, carbonyl and comet assays and 2) whether tobacco as plant model system could serve as a sensitive tool to evaluate biological effects of exposure to radiofrequency radiation.

Results
The analyses of the measured data showed that the radiation power densities are lower than 10 W/cm2. Comparing these power densities to those found in documented evidence of health effects showed that the health effects of these radiations are non-thermal in nature. Exposure to gsm radiations are linked to fatigue, headache, decreased concentration, dizziness, local irritation, burning, tumour induction, sperm motility, morphology and viability, and a reduction in male fertilizing potential. The most common associated health effect due to radiation from GSM antennas is headache. Therefore, it is advisable that mobile base stations should not be sited within 300m from residential, offices, school buildings.

Result
The comet assay parameters indicating damage to DNA increased after short-term exposure to 900 MHz EMF. However, since oxidative damage to membrane lipid and proteins was greater than that on DNA in exposed plants, it can concluded that short-term exposure to EMF at 900 MHz predominantly affects integrity of plasma membrane. Plants proved to be sensitive biomarkers in monitoring effects of RF-EMF at mobile phones range.

The monlT Project: Electromagnetic Radiation Exposure Assessment in Mobile Communications Conducted in Portugal
The monlT project provides public information on population exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) from mobile communication systems in Portugal. The monitoring system is based on a network of autonomous remote probing stations, and also on an extensive EMF sounding program, both carried out in public areas across the country. The monlT Project went through two main phases. The first phase related to the development of the monitoring and information system, including the definition of the measurement protocols. The second phase includes the measurement campaigns, the content production and management, the direct information actions, and research on and development of related topics. The monitoring and information system includes

Radio frequency electromagnetic field (900 MHz) induces oxidative damage to DNA and biomembrane in tobacco shoot cells (Nicotiana tabacum)-A research conducted in Croatia
Personal (cellular) telecommunications is a rapidly evolving technology that uses microwave radiation to communicate between a fixed base station and mobile user. Most systems employ a hand-held cellular telephone where the radiation antenna is close to the user's head. Exposure to radio frequency signals generated by the use

the EMF measurement network and a Web-based system for management and dissemination of results and information. The key perspective adopted by the international community for risk management related to EMF is the adoption of safety thresholds (known as basic restrictions, established in terms of SAR: Specific Absorption Rate) that ensure that the biological effects caused by EMF power absorption are not harmful. As it is not practical to directly measure the electromagnetic power that is absorbed by the human body, these thresholds are translated into reference levels for some electromagnetic quantities. Examples are power density (S), and electric (E) and magnetic (H) field strengths, which can be easily measured outside the human body.

spatial distribution of the field radiated from base stations turns out to be non-uniform with variations both in time and space that can exceed the normative limits of electromagnetic emissions. In order to real-time and in a long-term monitor the electromagnetic emissions, an innovative low cost solution based on a wireless sensor network (WSN) is presented. Such a network consists of spatially distributed and wirelessly connected autonomous devices (called nodes) that use suitable sensor to cooperatively collect physical quantities. The proposed solution considers the deployment of a set of WSN nodes, equipped with a broadband field probe, to monitor the level of the electromagnetic radiation in a distributed and real-time fashion. The system is composed by a set of N sensor nodes, each one equipped with a broadband field probe, a gateway node integrated with a GPRS modem and a remote server.

Results
They observed that in the majority of the measured points (60.9%), E was at least 32 times below the strictest reference level, and that 96.2% of the points were at least 10 times below this threshold.. Observation of the plot of all outdoor locations as a function of the distance to he antenna provided an interesting conclusion.The distribution of the measured field level points in graphic did not follow a fixed decay law as a function of distance but rather the ppoints were evenly scattered. This can be explained as because the number of base stations measured (eg., different installation topologies, transmission power,) and the traffic variation with time.The fact that the quipment was wide band could also explain this because in many sites there were also other transmitters present( radio.tv,police,fire department).

Real-time Distributed Monitoring of Electromagnetic Pollution in Urban Environments Conducted in Italy

In the last two decades, the wide diffusion of mobile phones and wireless technologies has brought many advantages in professional activities as well as in everyday life. In general, mobile communication networks are constituted by a limited number of base stations. The

The collected data is stored in a database on the remote server that can be accessed for data visualization thought the web. The field values are measured by an isotropic antenna characterized by three crossed dipoles. The voltage signal related to the field sample is acquired by means of the I/O interface (amplification and signal conditioning) and converted into a digital quantity with the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) of the central unit. As regards to the measurement procedure, each node acts in three different states. (a), the idle configuration or sleep mode is activated and the power consumption is minimized. After a wake-up signal, the data collection is performed by means of the broadband field probe [state (b)]. In such a state, the radio of the sensor node is turned off in order to limit/avoid the interferences on the field measurements. After the field measurement and digital conversion, the field probe is switched off [state (c)] and data are transmitted to the gateway node through the radio interface. The gateway unit is connected to a server station and the informations concerned with the electromagnetic emissions are then published on a web page to allow a real-time consultation.

Results
The system enables real-time data availability, long-term acquisition, high sampling rate and a easy deployment. The highly sensitive and wide dynamic range RF detector circuit allows measurements on a frequency range from 85 MHz to 2 GHz and field strength from approximately 0.5 V/m to 30 V/m.