Faculty of Medicine University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece; University of West Attica, Department of BioMedical Sciences, Athens, Greece; University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus.
Faculty of Medicine University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece.
Environ Res. 2020 Dec;191:109940. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.109940. Epub 2020 Jul 22.
The increasing popularity of mobile phones and the expansion of network infrastructure in Greece have given rise to public concerns about potential adverse health effects on sensitive groups, such as children, from long-term radio-frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs) exposure. According to Greek law the RF limit values for sensitive land use (schools, hospitals, etc) have been set to 60% of those recommended by EU standard and 70% for the general population.
The objective of this study is to estimate mean RF-EMF exposure levels of Greek primary and secondary edu-cation schools located in urban environments.
In selecting the minimum sample size we observed that the variance of the random variable was unknown, as there has been no similar previous study in Greece with schools as the target population. For this reason, a pilot study was conducted in 65 schools in order to estimate the standard deviation of the population and use that value to calculate the minimum sample size. Using a random machine num-ber generator contracted in R based on pseudo-random number algorithms, we obtained a sample of 492 schools in order to estimate the mean value for RF-EMF radiation sources in the 27 MHz-3GHz range in schools within urban environments in Greece.
We have performed the appropriate hypothesis test to get that there is sufficient evidence at the α = 0.05 level to conclude that the mean value for RF-EMF radiation sources in the 27 MHz-3GHz range, in schools within urban environments in Greece, is equal to 0.42 V/m, also a 95% confidence interval for the mean value is (0.4024, 0.4395)] with central value equal to the sample mean 0.4209.
In conclusion, the exposure level in the locations tested are both below 60% of the highest limit set by ICNIRP (International Commision on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) regarding sensitive land use.
在希腊，移动电话的普及和网络基础设施的扩展引发了公众对长期射频（RF）电磁场（EMF）暴露对儿童等敏感群体潜在不良健康影响的担忧。根据希腊法律，敏感用地（学校、医院等）的 RF 限值设定为欧盟标准推荐值的 60%，普通人群为 70%。
本研究旨在估计位于城市环境中的希腊小学和中学的平均 RF-EMF 暴露水平。
在选择最小样本量时，我们观察到随机变量的方差是未知的，因为在希腊以前没有针对作为目标人群的学校进行类似的研究。因此，进行了一项试点研究，在 65 所学校中估计了总体标准差，并使用该值计算最小样本量。我们使用基于伪随机数算法在 R 中签订合同的随机机器编号生成器，获得了希腊城市环境中 492 所学校的样本，以估计 27 MHz-3GHz 范围内学校内 RF-EMF 辐射源的平均值。
我们进行了适当的假设检验，得出在 α=0.05 水平上有足够的证据得出结论，即希腊城市环境中学校内 27 MHz-3GHz 范围内 RF-EMF 辐射源的平均值等于 0.42 V/m，95%置信区间的平均值也为（0.4024, 0.4395）]，中心值等于样本均值 0.4209。
综上所述，在测试的地点，暴露水平均低于 ICNIRP（国际非电离辐射防护委员会）针对敏感用地设定的最高限值的 60%。
