This Presentation prescribes recommendation for compliance guidelines on EMF emission for Cell sites and other locations during commissioning and integration.

1. PRESENTED BY:
ENGR. REMIGIUS OKORO
BEING A REQUIREMENT FOR THE COMPLETION OF
THE RADIO SIGNALS AND HEALTH COURSE
DELIVERED BY GSMA.
JUNE, 2018.
COMPLIANCE GUIDELINES FOR
EMF EXPOSURE LIMITS IN
COMMISSIONING OF CELL SITES

2. OUTLINE
29 June, 2018Remigius Okoro, NCC, Nigeria.
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 Background.
 ICNIRP Guidelines and Exposure Limits.
 Cell Site Installation and Commissioning.
 EMF Compliance Evaluation Procedures.
 EMF Compliance Guidelines.
 Practical Field Measurement Results (Nigeria)
 Recommendations for BTS Commissioning.
 Conclusion.
 References.

3. BACKGROUND
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 Cell sites have become the major source of concern regarding
radio signals and health for citizens, even in Nigeria.
 The presence of these infrastructure and antennas mostly in
residential areas elicits concerns especially being seen as
sources of radio signals often erroneously associated with
health hazards.
 Therefore, it has become imperative that regulators, town
planners and local governments come up with guidelines to
ensure that exposure to radio signal are within acceptable
international standards.
 Compliance with these set EMF emission limits and standards
must be verified during any cell site commissioning for any
macro, micro or Pico cells in Nigeria.

4. ICNIRP GUIDELINES AND EXPOSURE LIMITS
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 ICNIRP, a WHO partner has set limits for human
exposure to radio signals as follows:
 Health Effects Threshold 4W/kg
 Worker Level 0.4W/kg
 Public Levels 0.08W/kg
 Basic ICNIRP restrictions for RF exposure are based
on SAR and Power Density (S).
 ICNIRP reference levels are also provided for
practical exposure assessment purposes based on
measured and derived quantities such as Electric
Field (E), Magnetic Field (H) and Power Density (S).

5. CELL SITE INSTALLATION AND
COMMISSIONING
29 June, 2018Remigius Okoro, NCC, Nigeria.
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 Cell sites majorly constitute the access network for
mobile communications and are located where people
live for quality service provision.
 The process of cell site completion involves network
planning, site acquisition, site build, installations,
integration and commissioning.
 The commissioning process involves a checklist of
procedures to ensure the site complies with standards
and specifications before going live.
 Therefore, the EMF exposure level compliance must be
integrated into the Commissioning process and must
conform with the ICNIRP standards.

6. EMF COMPLIANCE EVALUATION
PROCEDURE
29 June, 2018Remigius Okoro, NCC, Nigeria.
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 The EMF Compliance evaluation procedure starts
with identifying appropriate compliance limits
around a particular cell site.
 Adopting the ICNIRP exposure limits for general,
worker and public groups.
 Information about transmitters and antennas must
be provided to enable calculation estimation.
 Evaluation can be either from practical
measurements or by calculation depending on the
reference frequencies of the site.

7. EMF EMISSION COMPLIANCE GUIDELINES
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 Reference levels for the site
must be measured on the
basis of the E, H or the S
quantities.
 Practical field
measurements must be
carried out, preferably with
broadband measurement
equipment to account for
all possible frequencies.
 Narrowband
measurements equipment
can also be used for target
mobile frequencies.
 Compliance zones must be
established according to ICNIRP
recommendations as follows:
 The Exceedance Zone - No
access to both workers and the
public.
 The Occupational Zone - For RF
workers
 The Compliance Zone - For the
General Public.

8. PRACTICAL FIELD MEASUREMENT RESULTS
(NIGERIA)
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 Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) conducts regular
spot measurements of EMF emission on select sites across the
country.
 The results obtained from measurements reveal that measured
exposure levels are far below ICNIRP permissible levels for
workers and general public.
Typical Power Density (watt/m2) Measurement (Jabi, Abuja)
The signal trace shown
here shows a power density
Measurement with a value
of 15.53µwatt/m2 on the
900 MHz band.

9. PRACTICAL FIELD MEASUREMENTS
(NIGERIA) Cont’d
29 June, 2018Remigius Okoro, NCC, Nigeria.
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Power Density (watt/m2) Measurement at 1800Mhz (Jabi, Abuja)
 Signal trace on the 1800 MHz band is shown below with a measured
power density value of 477.7 nwatt/m2.

10. PRACTICAL FIELD MEASUREMENTS
(NIGERIA) Cont’d
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 Electric Field Strength Measurements Airport Road, Abuja
Distance
from Cell
Site
Reference
level for
Electric-Field
Strength
(V/M)
Measured Value of Electric-Field Strength (V/M) at
Cell Site.
REMARKS
ICNIRP Peak Value Pulse Value Average Value
10m 29 – 61 1.13 0.90 1.40 The maximum value of
2.20 V/M (peak value)
represents 7.5% of the
Minimum Electric-
Field Strength
reference level i.e.
29V/M. Hence
Measured Values are
below the minimum
Limits (29V/M)
20m 29 – 61 0.90 0.50 1.70
30m 29 – 61 1.80 1.45 1.70
40m 29 – 61 1.90 1.70 1.90
50m 29 – 61 2.00 1.30 1.60
60m 29 – 61 2.20 1.80 1.70
70m 29 – 61 1.70 1.00 1.20
80m 29 – 61 1.30 1.20 1.30
90m 29 – 61 1.40 1.10 1.30
100m 29 – 61 1.40 1.20 1.20

11. PRACTICAL FIELD MEASUREMENTS
(NIGERIA) Cont’d
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Comparison of Measured values with ICNIRP
Limits on Power Density.
 The results obtained from measurements reveal that measured
exposure levels are far below ICNIRP permissible levels for
workers and general public as shown below.

12. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CELL SITE
COMMISSIONING
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In addition to the checklist required for the cell site
integration, the following recommendations are
proffered for cell site commissioning.
 All equipment used in the cell site must be type-approved
in accordance with IEC standards to ensure their
emission levels are within limits.
 The results of the measurements carried out during
commissioning must be publicized and shown to
conform to standards.
 Telecommunication operators must repeat these
measurements bi-annually and file results with the
regulator, to check compliance.

13. CONCLUSION
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 The concerns and speculations regarding radio
signals and health have been growing over time even
as technology advances to technologies such as IoT
and 5G mobile.
 Empirical measurements, further research and clear
communication of known facts are strategies that
will assure safety.

14. REFERENCES
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 https://www.gsma.com/publicpolicy/mobile-and-health
 https://www.icnirp.org/en/frequencies/high-
frequency/index.html
 http://www.who.int/peh-emf/publications/facts/fs304/en/
 GUIDELINES FOR LIMITING EXPOSURE TO TIME-
VARYING ELECTRIC,. MAGNETIC, AND
ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS (up to 300 GHz).
 https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/emf/Pages/default.aspx