Health & Safety Concerns
Broadband Frequencies - Health & Safety Concerns Summary
We occasionally get asked about the health affects of the equipment used by the Grey County broadband project. All of the equipment used in the project meets all Canadian safety regulations. Industry Canada uses a guideline called Safety Code 6 to measure acceptable levels of power transmitted from radios. In the example used here our total value for the Priceville tower for the Safety Code 6 Calculation is 0.000379677. Industry Canada considers anything under a value of 1.0 acceptable. Above this limit, warning signs need to be posted. As a comparison, portable cellular telephones have a maximum output power of 0.6 Watts, the largest value for our Priceville example at the base of our tower is 0.00133754 Watts/square metre.
The Project uses Wireless LAN technology (WLAN) in the frequency ranges of: 900Mhz, 2400Mhz, 3500 (WiMax), 5300MHz and 5800Mhz. These are the same frequencies (with the exception of WiMax) that are used by manufacturers of home appliances like broadband routers and portable telephones (not cellular). The communication towers are for WLAN not cellular equipment and operate at much lower power levels than cellular.
How does WLAN technology differ from cellular technology?
WLAN products use a "bursty" type of transmit/receive protocol, while Cellular transmits and receives constantly (connection oriented). As an example: If a user would transfer data on an average of 100 MB per day, the WLAN transmitter would be on the air for approximately 10 minutes. Moreover, a typical hand held-cell phone has a RF power output of 0.600 Watts (600 mW) or almost 20X more output power!
Industry Canada regulates telecommunication towers in Canada. Everus Communications Inc. (the vendor for our project) follows all of the guidelines (Safety Code 6) set out by Industry Canada. Below is a link to Safety Code 6 and an explanation of a Safety Code 6 calculation.
Safety Code 6 - Example Calculation
Safety Code 6 - Industry Canada
World Health Organization Electromagnetic Fields and Public Health