Radiation Absorbed Dose Rates from Selected Mobile Phone Base Stations in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

What is it about?

The aim of this study is to measure the radiation dose from Mobile Phone Base Stations relative to human exposure at various locations within Ibadan metropolis, Southwestern Nigeria by measuring the radiation dose at 10 - 100 metres distance away from the randomly selected base stations and compare the results with other studies/recommended exposure limit. A Victoreen radiation survey meter (fluke 451 model) was used to measure the radiation dose. The meter was calibrated with a calibration factor of 1.1 to standardized the values measured with international recommended standards. The average radiation dose reported for the studied area were 9.36, 11.28, 8.73, 10.17, 8.58, 9.80, 7.13, 10.05, 8.14 and 8.81 µSv/hr respectively. The mean value of radiation dose from the study area was 9.21 µSv/hr which is higher than the maximum permissible level of 5.7 µSv/hr recommended by the American Nuclear Society for persons within 0 – 100 m from a mobile phone base station. The values vary according to the distance which shows that the strength of the radiation field is greatest at the source and diminished quickly with distances. Results obtained for the present study showed that radiation emitted at mobile phone base station are at intensities that are thousands of times less than intensities that can produce a heating effect. Hence, the assumption from the results obtained for the present study area is that the radiation exposures from mobile phone base stations impose no health hazard as the limits recommended in the guidelines by International Commission of Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection do not appear to have any known adverse consequence on human health.

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Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash

Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Humans in modern society are exposed to an ever increasing dose of radiation generated from the production and supply of electricity, television (TV) sets, a personal computer (PC), radio communication, security devices and most recently mobile phones and their base stations. Though there have been numerous studies on health effects of chronic exposure to the radiation from mobile phone base stations and mobile phones, this is because all living creatures have been and are still being exposed to various degrees of radiation and its fields. Most studies are still at early stages to fully understand the degree of damages caused by these radiation exposures.

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