Danger in Working Near Antenna's? EMF/RF Exposure?

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I'm doing a 3 week project on the roof of a 60 story building that has mulitple antenna's on top of it. I've heard that there maybe risks from prolonged exposure to the signals given off/recieved by these things?

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Is there a risk? Is there an agency that can test/measure such a thing? Or am I making an issue out of a non-issue?


Thanks for the help.
 
AM radio has long wavelengths compared to the size of a human body so this is not too dangerous. TV stations, on the other hand, have wavelengths comparable to 6' or so and so your body would be a pretty efficient receiving antenna for these frequencies.

If the roof is a 'ground plane', the closer you are to the roof, the safer you are.

If a neon bulb or fluorescent lamp in your hand glows, you might oughta' be worried.
 
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If I was in a city big enough to have a 60 story building in it, I'd be more worried about smog than radio frequencies....
 
AM radio has long wavelengths compared to the size of a human body so this is not too dangerous. TV stations, on the other hand, have wavelengths comparable to 6' or so and so your body would be a pretty efficient receiving antenna for these frequencies.

If the roof is a 'ground plane', the closer you are to the roof, the safer you are.

If a neon bulb or fluorescent lamp in your hand glows, you might oughta' be worried.


An explanation of what "ground plane" means would be helpful.
 
These antennas could be anything. Ones that receive aren't a hazard. Ones that transmit probably are. What you need to know for the transmit antennas is what the danger zone is. It could be within 1" of the antenna, or within 3', or within 50'. Depends on frequency, power, and antenna gain/directionality. You probably can't tell a transmit from receive antenna by looking at it.

I would think most would be receive antennas. But if they have some sort of wireless link, satelite uplink, terrabeam, etc., then you need to find out what it is and the safety issues.

On our roofs, we have a metal walkway. Stay on it and you're fine. Get off it, and you need to check with the users of the specific antennas to see if you have a problem or not.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_plane

You might rent an RF dosimeter or EM dosimeter to see what the field strength is at your jobsite.
If it's dangerously high according independent agencies you might look into a Faraday suit or conductive suit. This suit does not need to be grounded to protect you.

IIRC some studies link RF fields to leukemia.
 
40 years ago while in New York City, we went to the observation floor of the Empire State Building. Looking out the windows you could see all the city's FM broadcasting antennas just a few feet away. People worked on that floor for years without problems.
 
I work on cell sites from to time. The tower hands wear detectors to warn them if they are in front of the microwave relays.

One of the shelters shares space with AM radio transmitter. One of cell techs said "Don 't touch that, you 'll die."
 
During my years in ROTC (Army Signal Corp) we had to set up a protective perimeter for a transmitting antenna. Strength measurement was a fluorescent-tube. Instructor told us to walk away from the antenna untill illumination ceased! Then he shouted, "Put up the fence!"


Regards, Phil Corso
 
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One of the shelters shares space with AM radio transmitter. One of cell techs said "Don 't touch that, you 'll die."

You can touch the transmitter enclosure/rack. It's the transmission line (or co-ax line) that you want to stay away from, it might look like a copper water pipe. The entire tower is the antenna, so steeple-jacks get on the tower/antenna by climbing a tall fiberglass ladder and stepping over to the tower.

On the other hand, I know of three broadcast engineers that were killed in radio transmitter buildings.
 
I used to tinker with CB radio. Had an amp in my truck that wasn't quite legal. It only put out 200 watts. The 102" stainless steel antenna would burn your had if you touched it while it was transmitting. Yes I touched it. I would clip neon lights to it and watch them glow.

So yes, if they are transmitting antennas they can be dangerous.
 
Five kids in an elementary school on a hill in Passaic, NJ, came down with cancer and the odds against this happening at the same location within the time interval are astronomical.
Turns out the school was in the path of dozens of microwave antennas.

My house is bathed in 200 mV/meter during the daytime from an AM transmitter and this is 100x below what the guv says is safe. But, who knows? If I had kids I would have moved.
 
all these replies vary all over the map and so should show you that there can be danger in high power rf. as an extra class ham, old 1rst class commercial license holder, ele engr, I can tell you there can be danger to your health by those antennas on top of the 60' building. I also can tell you no AM broadcast antenna (25,000-200,00 watts) is there (yes, they are the tower and 160-250 FOOT high so NOT on top of that building as well as require beging LOW by the ground not high to work well, the normal antennas on that building are line of sight 30-480mhz band at typically 20-250watts, with maybe some microwave (wireless for internet stuff antennas at typically 0.5-25 watts. Did you know that a microwave oven is about same frequency as wireless internet stuff (2-3ghz) and this also is the frequency that vibrates water (or why would it cook food?) and also your body fluids? Do you worry about your kitchen microwave? Of course you don't beam it from an antenna toward some other location. I used to light a 4' florescent bulb fully with my 200 watt heathkit on 80, 40, or 10 meter ham band (3, 7, 30 mhz) within about 2 feet of my antenna. I also worked for years on all kinds of 2 way radios while going to college and probably spent more time overall than you will on top of some of those same kind of buildings as you are talking about,and I am still alive.

With your concern I would recommend you ask the building owners who want you to some work up there to give you a written ok to do so in safe way as you are concerned.

IMHO just stay 5-10 ft away from any of the antennas and you will probably be fine, but ask for written doc from building folks if you want to be sure.
 
The ionizing radiation from radioactivity is dangerous. I do not know about any conclusive study that the non-ionizing radiation from any cell/radio tower is dangerous.
 
Certain cell transmission and directional microwave antennas can literally cook you from the inside. We did work on a roof and the building super gave us a go/no go path around one antenna. (scary!)


I only know enough to say don't take the lack of warning signs as a green light. There are requirements for signs. They may not be upto date in safety placarding a roof.
 
Certain cell transmission and directional microwave antennas can literally cook you from the inside. We did work on a roof and the building super gave us a go/no go path around one antenna. (scary!)


I only know enough to say don't take the lack of warning signs as a green light. There are requirements for signs. They may not be upto date in safety placarding a roof.

There are OSHA guidelines for RF exposure, you can start here: http://transition.fcc.gov/oet/rfsafety/rf-faqs.html and http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/radiofrequencyradiation/. I know some places require placards on all doors leading the exposure area (like the roof of my office building). There's a bunch of other stuff for those interested in reading OSHA docs.

In the RF radiation safety course I took a couple of years ago, the place we were told to be most wary was the roofs of tall buildings bristling with cell and two-way antennas. Biggest concern was the heating of tissue and the body's ability to respond. As mentioned above by nhfire, the higher frequencies you would find on a building roof (cell, two-way, microwave) are more of a problem. Those rooftops are also most likely to be missing RFR warning signs. AM broadcast frequencies don't heat tissue very well, and the OSHA regulations reflect this...the big danger with AM towers occurs when you touch things that are hot with RF energy (like the tower or some feedline components)...shock and burns happen then. Trust me...it's unpleasant.

Zbang's links to the FCC and OSHA sites are indeed a good place to start for information.
 
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