ASSESSMENT OF POWER DENSITY RADIATION FROM TELECOMMUNICATION MASTS IN THE NORTHERN PART OF DELTA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The number of mobile phone users has significantly grown in recent years, hence more base stations are required. These base stations are mostly found in urbanized or highly populated areas which have become an issue of concern to the public's health. In this research, a Trifield EMF meter was used to take the measurements of power density at 1.5 and 1.7 m height above the ground level for a distance of 100 m at 20 m intervals from 45 masts distributed throughout the northern part of Delta State, Nigeria. The distance of the masts from the nearest buildings was also measured. The results obtained range from 0.248 mWm-2 to 17.914 mWm-2 at 1.5 m and 0.369 to 20.000 mWm-2 at 1.7 m. These results assert that the measured values are relatively low compared to the 2.0 –10.0 Wm-2 for >400 – 2000 MHz radiofrequency range stipulated by International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). This shows that there is no significant health concern from non-ionizing radiation (NIR) exposure to the population in the study area. 46.6% of the masts in this research breached safety requirements set by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency and the Nigerian Communication Commission