An Experimental Investigation of the Heating Effects of 900 MHz Cell Phones on Brain Phantom in terms of Public Health

Abstract

Investigation of the effect of mobile phones in the terms of human health is getting more important position in the literature due to the increased public concern. An experimentally efficient setup was established to determine the thermal effects caused by mobile phones in the brain. Temperature increasing in the brain during exposing the mobile phone is investigated in a brain equivalent liquid (phantom). In the proposed experimental setup, mobile phone which operates at 900 MHz frequency was represented with a radio frequency (RF) generator which has a half-dipole antenna and this system is applied to phantom at different distances. Thermal absorptions were observed by sensitive temperature sensors at different depths. Effects of electromagnetic fields are usually investigated via numerical methods and simulations in the literature. In this study, an experimental analysis of temperature distributions in the human brain phantom exposed to mobile phone radiation at 900 MHz is presented. All experiments were conducted in an anechoic chamber where temperature variation is about 0.009oC. Additionally, high-power electromagnetic fields are used such as 4W, 7W and 10W which are not implemented till now in the literature for GSM frequencies. Different temperature distribution in the phantoms was observed by systematically changed distances and power options. In this last case, maximum temperature elevation was observed as 0.403oC. While the temperature elevation increases with increasing applied power, removing the mobile phone from the phantom reduce the temperature elevation in the phantom.