Value chain · CLM-1332
In plain terms
By the mid-1980s Western limits were set from the energy the body absorbs, with a tenfold margin below the level that upset animal behaviour. The Soviet limit for a working day stayed far lower.
The claim as recorded
A 1986 review of radiofrequency and microwave exposure standards reports that permissible occupational limits then differed between standards by factors of 20 to 100, and public limits by factors of 20. It reports that the 1982 ANSI standard rests on the finding that acute (under 1 hour) whole-body exposure at an average SAR below 4 W/kg produced no adverse effect in animals, with behavioural change the most sensitive indicator, and that a tenfold reduction to 0.4 W/kg was applied because prolonged exposure may cause damage; its limit is 50 W/m2 from 1.5 to 100 GHz, for workers and public alike. The IRPA limits derive from 0.4 W/kg for workers and 0.08 W/kg for the public, giving 50 and 10 W/m2 respectively from 2 to 300 GHz. The Soviet limit started from a reported threshold of 10 W/m2 for functional disturbances in animals and people after one hour at 3 GHz; a safety factor of 10 and a reciprocal time rule for a 10-hour day gave an occupational limit of 0.1 W/m2, later a public limit of 0.05 W/m2, and in January 1982 the occupational limit was raised to 0.25 W/m2. On the review's tables, that working-day limit is about 200 times below the ANSI 1982 and IRPA occupational 50 W/m2 at 2.45 GHz (our arithmetic).
Evidence behind this: T2, a review in an industrial-hygiene journal; it permits "the 1986 review reports Y". It summarises standards and does not reproduce the instruments, none of which is held.
Scope and limits
Second-hand summaries; the ANSI, IRPA and Soviet instruments are not held, and the Soviet derivation is the review's account of a Soviet review. The review does not say which standards its "20 to 100" and "20" factors compare; on its own tables (our arithmetic), at 2.45 GHz the IRPA public limit of 10 W/m2 is 200 times the Soviet public 0.05 W/m2, and the ANSI 1982 and IRPA occupational 50 W/m2 is 200 times the Soviet working-day 0.25 W/m2 (300 MHz-300 GHz, stationary antenna), so the factors probably exclude the USSR; this is not stated. The ANSI 1982 averaging time is 6 minutes; the Soviet values are maxima, not averages, per the review. Historical limits, since superseded; ICNIRP 2020 carries the same 0.4 and 0.08 W/kg (see the register's ICNIRP records).
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
PDF p.1 / printed 75, abstract: "Permissible limits for occupational exposures differ by factors of 20 to 100, and those for the general public by factors of 20." PDF p.3 / printed 77: ANSI "concluded that acute (less than 1 hour) exposure"; "less than 4 W/kg does not produce an adverse health effect in experimental animals"; "a ten-fold reduction in the permissible SAR (i.e., 0.4 W/kg) was invoked"; "Behavioral changes in experimental animals were found to be the most sensitive indicator"; Table I, 1.5-100 GHz, 50 W/m2. PDF p.5 / printed 79: "a threshold at a power density of 10 W/m2 for functional disturbances in laboratory animals and people exposed for one hour to 3 GHz radiation"; occupational limit "became 0.1 W/m2"; public "0.05 W/m2"; "The occupational limit was increased to 0.25 W/m2 in January 1982". PDF p.9 / printed 83: public "should not exceed a SAR of 0.08 W/kg"; Table X, >2000-300000 MHz, 50 W/m2; Table XI, same band, 10 W/m2.
Basis: W/m2 incident power density by frequency band; W/kg whole-body SAR; hours of exposure
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-001 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1332
CLM-1332, Energy Aperture, as of 1986-07.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.