Micro-environmental personal radio-frequency electromagnetic field exposures in Melbourne: A longitudinal trend analysis.

BACKGROUND: A knowledge gap exists regarding longitudinal assessment of personal radio-frequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposures globally. It is unclear how the change in telecommunication technology over the years translates to change in RF-EMF exposure. This study aims to evaluate longitudinal trends of micro-environmental personal RF-EMF exposures in Australia. METHODS: The study utilised baseline (2015-16) and follow-up (2022) data on personal RF-EMF exposure (88 MHz-6 GHz) measured across 18 micro-environments in Melbourne. Simultaneous quantile regression analysis was conducted to compare exposure data distribution percentiles, particularly median (P50), upper extreme value (P99) and overall exposure trends. RF-EMF exposures were compared across six exposure source types: mobile downlink, mobile uplink, broadcast, 5G-New Radio, Others and Total (of the aforementioned sources). Frequency-specific exposures measured at baseline and follow-up were compared. Total exposure across different groups of micro-environment types were also compared. RESULTS: For all micro-environmental data, total (median and P99) exposure levels did not significantly change at follow-up. Overall exposure trend of total exposure increased at follow-up. Mobile downlink contributed the highest exposure among all sources showing an increase in median exposure and overall exposure trend. Of seven micro-environment types, five of them showed total exposure levels (median and P99) and overall exposure trend increased at follow-up.

The exposure of nonhuman living organisms to mobile communication emissions: A survey to establish European stakeholders' policy option preferences.

There is an unprecedented exposure of living organisms to mobile communications radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) emissions. Guidelines on exposure thresholds to limit thermal effects from these emissions are restricted to humans. However, tissue heating can occur in all living organisms that are exposed. In addition, exposure at millimetric frequencies used by 5G may impact surface tissues and organs of plants and small-size species. It is also expected that the addition of 5G to existing networks will intensify radiofrequency absorption by living organisms. A European Parliament report proposed policy options on the effects of RF-EMF exposure of plants, animals, and other living organisms in the context of 5G: funding more research, implementing monitoring networks, accessing more information from operators on antennas and EMF emissions, and developing compliance studies when antennas are installed. However, there is no evidence on the preferences of relevant stakeholders regarding these policy options. This paper reports the findings of a survey of key European stakeholders' policy option preferences based on the European Parliament's report. It reveals a broad consensus on funding more research on the effects of exposure of plants, animals, and other living organisms to EMFs. It also highlights the need for deliberation concerning the other policy options that could provide solutions for regulatory authorities, central administrations, the private sector, nongovernmental associations and advocates, and academics. Such deliberation would pave the way for effective solutions, focusing on long-term output from funding research, and enabling short-term socially and economically acceptable actions for all parties concerned.

A Circular, Wireless Surface-Electromyography Array.

Commercial, high-tech upper limb prostheses offer a lot of functionality and are equipped with high-grade control mechanisms. However, they are relatively expensive and are not accessible to the majority of amputees. Therefore, more affordable, accessible, open-source, and 3D-printable alternatives are being developed. A commonly proposed approach to control these prostheses is to use bio-potentials generated by skeletal muscles, which can be measured using surface electromyography (sEMG). However, this control mechanism either lacks accuracy when a single sEMG sensor is used or involves the use of wires to connect to an array of multiple nodes, which hinders patients' movements. In order to mitigate these issues, we have developed a circular, wireless s-EMG array that is able to collect sEMG potentials on an array of electrodes that can be spread (not) uniformly around the circumference of a patient's arm. The modular sEMG system is combined with a Bluetooth Low Energy System on Chip, motion sensors, and a battery. We have benchmarked this system with a commercial, wired, state-of-the-art alternative and found an r = 0.98 (p < 0.01) Spearman correlation between the root-mean-squared (RMS) amplitude of sEMG measurements measured by both devices for the same set of 20 reference gestures, demonstrating that the system is accurate in measuring sEMG. Additionally, we have demonstrated that the RMS amplitudes of sEMG measurements between the different nodes within the array are uncorrelated, indicating that they contain independent information that can be used for higher accuracy in gesture recognition. We show this by training a random forest classifier that can distinguish between 6 gestures with an accuracy of 97%. This work is important for a large and growing group of amputees whose quality of life could be improved using this technology.