Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/51857

Title

The use of temperature as a metric for the assessment of RF safety

Author(s)

McIntosh, Robert L.;  Anderson, Vitas;  McKenzie, Raymond J.

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of international and local research efforts in assessing the thermal consequences of human exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic energy (EME), and the use of tissue temperature as a metric for assessing RF safety limits. This review includes discussion of numerical modelling techniques used to assess RF absorption and the resultant temperature changes; measurements with human volunteers at the USA Brooks Air Force Base, Texas; and a summary of discussion from the 2004 IEEE ICES/COST 281 Thermophysiology workshop held in France. With greater understanding being developed on the thermal consequences of RF exposure, consideration is being given as to whether temperature change should be used as the primary RF exposure metric rather than the use of specific absorption rate (SAR) as is currently the case. This paper discusses this and the research underway to understand the consequences of such a change. An important result arising from studies performed at the Australian Centre for Radiofrequency Bioeffects Research (ACRBR) is that the distribntion of the induced tissue temperature is much better correlated with the 109 average SAR, than with either the 1g average SAR or the point (unaveraged) SAR. This has significant implications for the derivation of RF Safety Standards given the importance of thermal effects in their formulation.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Life and Social Sciences. Australian Centre for Radiofrequency Bioeffects Research

Source

Radiation Protection in Australasia, Vol. 25, no. 1 (May 2008), pp. 9-21

Publication year

2008

FOR Code(s)

029901 Biological Physics;  080110 Simulation and Modelling

Keyword(s)

Electromagnetic energy;  EME;  Exposure;  Human body model;  Metrics;  Radiofrequency;  RF;  Safety;  SAR;  Specific absorption rate;  Temperature;  Thermal modelling

Publisher

Australasian Radiation Protection Society

ISSN

1444-2752

Publisher URL

http://www.arps.org.au/

Additional information

This article is a reprint of a paper presented at the Australasian Radiation Protection Society (ARPS) Conference, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 2005. The paper was named Best Paper at the conference.

Peer reviewed