Investigation of Electromagnetic Radiations by GSM Base Stations in Nigeria for Compliance Testing

Abstract

Thousands of base station antennas (BSA) have been installed in Nigeria to support the development of mobile telephony. At the same time there is a public concern about the electromagnetic fields induced by these antennas, particularly there is a great fear by those living in the vicinity of these antennas, of being exposed to the harmful effects of this radiation. This fear has created the need to investigate and establish the level and also to determine whether this level is harmful or not based on the International Committee for Non-Ionization Radio Protection (ICNIRP) Standards. In this study, field measurement approach was used to investigate the impact and compare the result with the safety standard as given by ICNIRP. The analysis of the result provided information on the radiation level in the university of Nigeria environment. The results showed that Odim location recorded the maximum power density of 0.1879 mW/m2, while PG recorded the minimum power density of 0.0158 mW/m2.  The maximum power density value obtained occurred at 200m away from the foot of base station antenna. When this power density level was compared with the international safety level standard of about 4.5W/m², the result showed low radiation, 0.004 percent of the safety level.

Keywords: EMR, Base Station, Radiation, Measurement, Environment, Power Density