A recent Federal Health Department audit of a mobile phone base stations at four sites has again found base station radio frequency (RF) emissions are clearly meeting Australia’s safety standards.

A measurement program undertaken by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) has again shown that Australia’s telecommunications carriers are operating their antennas and base stations at levels well below the allowable limit, said MCF Program Manager Matt Evans.

The latest survey for four sites at Holt (ACT), Palmerston (NT), Wynnum North (QLD) and Calamvale (QLD) focused on sites where at least four and as many as seven different telecommunications services were co-located and all operating from the one tower site.

Mr Evans said the results revealed that the maximum level of RF emissions from these base stations (operating at full power) determined from measurements at locations around each site was just 0.890% of the ARPANSA Standard limit for public exposure. This level is more than 100 times below the safety standard.

“This testing managed by the Government clearly shows the significant margin of safety between the maximum power of a base station (with multiple services operating at the same time) and Australia’s safety standards,” he said.

“We hope that people who have concerns about safety around base stations in other cities and towns around Australia can take some comfort from these results as they are clear and unambiguous.”

The highest level of emissions recorded across the 16 audited sites from 2007-2009 is still only 1.163 per cent or 86 times lower than the standard.

Results from the four most recent audited sites together with ARPANSA’s results for all audited base stations since 2007 can be found at:

http://www.arpansa.gov.au/RadiationProtection/BaseStationSurvey/index.cfm