Abstract:
Nowadays, most people panic with sleeping disorders, and different causes are emerging day-
to-day. Some scientists believe that living inside environments with high Radiofrequency (RF)
intensities and keeping mobile phones in the bed may lead to sleeping disorders and may
change the behavior of the nerve system. In this study, Radiofrequency radiation is measured
within the frequency range 300 MHz – 3000 MHz in two bedrooms inside the houses located
in Colombo (Urban Location) and Kegalle (Rural Location) districts, respectively. The reason
for selecting the above frequency range is most of the television broadcasting, cellular
communication, Wi-Fi, and other data communication networks use this frequency range. At
the selected locations, RF plane wave power densities and the electric field intensities were
recorded using the Spectran HF6065 spectrum analyzer on an hourly basis for a duration of 12
hours. Measured values were compared with the international reference levels published by
ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) and FCC (Federal
Communications Commission). Maximum plane wave power density and electric field
strength measured in the urban location are 38.08±0.01 μμW mm−2 (0.0005% of the maximum
permissible level) and 119.80± 0.01 mV mm−1 (0.23% of the maximum permissible level),
respectively. The maximum RF radiation levels were observed at 4 a.m. at the urban location
and at 6 a.m. at the rural location. According to the results, recorded RF radiation values are
shifted towards 2 GHz frequency region in the urban location, and at the rural location, those
are gathered around 1.1 GHz region. It is found that the urban location is nearly 10 times
polluted by RF radiation than the rural location, and still, these values are well below the
maximum permissible levels. Further studies are underway to observe high RF polluted
locations and their effects.
