SRC-705

Human Exposure to Nonionizing Radiant Energy - Potential Hazards and Safety Standards (invited paper). Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 60, no. 4, April 1972, pp.389-421 (reprint)

Commissioned by US Atomic Energy Commission (work under AEC contract at the University of Rochester Atomic Energy Project, Report UR-49-1511, as printed). Who paid for a study is recorded because it bears on how its conclusions should be read, not because it makes them wrong.

Published claims resting on this source

• CLM-1347 In 1972 a leading American review said microwaves were only known to harm people by heating them. It called the evidence for other effects weak, so it argued against copying the far stricter Soviet limit.
• CLM-1348 People feel microwave warmth only at fairly high strengths: tens of milliwatts per square centimetre for a second or so on the forehead, and less if more of the body is exposed. Pain needs tens of times more. So feeling nothing does not mean a person is below the limit.
• CLM-1439 Microwaves, radio waves and visible light are the same kind of thing: electromagnetic waves. What sets them apart is the length of the wave. Light waves are less than a thousandth of a millimetre long, microwaves are from a few millimetres to about a metre long, and broadcast radio waves are longer still.

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