642 ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications Annex 2 Summary of ICNIRP guidelines In 1998, the International Commission on Non‐Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)20 published their guidelines on limiting exposure to EMF, to protect against all known adverse health effects. This publication resulted from a thorough review of the scientific literature and assessed all health risks to both the general public and workers. The exposure limits have incorporated large safety factors to allow for uncertainties in the sensitivities of people to EMF and in the scientific studies. Basic restrictions In the frequency range from 10 MHz to 10 GHz, that includes the frequencies used for mobile and wireless communications, the RF exposure limits (basic restrictions) are expressed as SAR values, see Table 4. The specific absorption rate (SAR) is the rate at which RF energy is absorbed in body tissues and is expressed in units of W/kg. Table 4 – ICNIRP basic restrictions applicable to wireless services 10 MHz to 10 GHz Type of exposure Frequency Whole body average SAR (W/kg) Localised SAR (head and trunk) (W/kg) Localised SAR (limbs) (W/kg) Occupational worker 10 MHz ‐10 GHz 0.4 10 20 General public 10 MHz ‐10 GHz 0.08 2 4 For frequencies from 10 GHz to 300 GHz, the ICNIRP basic restrictions are given in terms of power density, see Table 5. Table 5 – ICNIRP basic restrictions applicable to wireless services between 10 GHz and 300 GHz Type of exposure Equivalent plane wave power density (W/m2) Occupational exposure 50 General public 10 Reference levels The ‘basic restrictions’ are the actual limits based on the mechanism by which the RF fields affect tissues. For practical assessments, ICNIRP also provides the equivalent frequency dependent \"reference levels\", expressed as electric field (V/m), magnetic field (A/m) and power density (W/m2), so that RF measurement equipment can be used to determine compliance, see Table 6. While the ____________________ 20 http://www.icnirp.org/cms/upload/publications/ICNIRPemfgdl.pdf