by Maartje Pronk | May 19, 2025 | News
A Project GOLIAT study in seven EU countries found that more base stations mean lower RF-EMF exposure from phones, and that 5G needs less transmit power than 4G, reducing user exposure when sending data
A study from the GOLIAT project, led by Ghent University, has assessed 4G and 5G uplink exposure in seven European countries. The results, published in Environmental Research, suggest that the density of base stations is a predictor of personal exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) when using a mobile phone: the more base stations there are, the lower the exposure from the users’ own phone when sending data. The researchers also found that 5G requires less transmit power than 4G.
The study used a new methodology to assess exposure to 4G and 5G in 282 microenvironments from Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK. The aim was to find out what a person’s exposure is when using the phone at maximum data upload capacity and in different everyday locations – or microenvironments – and city sizes. To simulate personal exposure from one’s own phone, the researchers designed a backpack containing a phone equipped with an application that measures transmission power.
Between February and October 2023, trained researchers walked with the backpack in parks, on public transport, in city centres, in industrial areas and in other specific areas of five city types with different levels of urbanisation and population density: a large city with more than 500,000 inhabitants (usually the capital), a medium-sized city with between 100,000 and 500,000 inhabitants, and three villages with less than 100,000 inhabitants.
As they travelled through the different micro-environments, they carried a mobile phone configured to upload large files to a remote server, so that it would operate at maximum load and they could measure the energy transmitted (or transmission power).
The results
In general, the results showed that in areas with a higher density of base stations – also known informally as mobile phone antennas or towers – the phones used less power to transmit the data, resulting in lower exposure for the user. For example, in almost all countries, the energy emitted by phones in villages was higher than in big cities. Similarly, transmitting power was generally higher in parks or in villages, where there are usually fewer base stations and they tend to be further apart. Conversely, the microenvironments where the phones emitted less energy were mainly in big cities or industrial areas.
“Our results are in line with previous studies analysing 4G. Basically, the idea is that the stronger the signal from the base station, the less effort the phone has to make to send data. We need more research to fully understand the differences between different microenvironments,” says Bram Stroobandt, researcher at Ghent University and first author of the study.
The Netherlands was the country where phones emitted more energy to transmit data, followed by Belgium, Hungary and Italy, while the medians in Switzerland and Poland were lower. “The fact that the median is lower in Switzerland and Poland can be attributed to better network connections. Switzerland has Europe’s first commercial 5G network and is therefore ahead of other countries.” says Bram Stroobandt.
5G vs. 4G
In addition, the data analysis showed that the 5G bands require lower transmit power on average than 4G, suggesting that the exposure to RF-EMF when using a phone is lower with 5G than with its predecessor. However, as 5G is not yet fully deployed, the authors found that 4G is still the main contributor to exposure.
“Our study paves the way for the personal exposure assessment of European citizens and provides important measurement data for epidemiologists and governments,” says Wout Joseph, researcher at Ghent University and lead author of the study.
Reference
Bram Stroobandt, Han Van Bladel, Adriana Fernandes Veludo, Kenneth Deprez, Sam Aerts, Leen Verloock, György Thuróczy, Piotr Politanski, Kinga Polanska, Gabriella Tognola, Marta Parazzini, Joe Wiart, Mònica Guxens, Martin Röösli, Wout Joseph, Auto-induced uplink 4G and 5G RF-EMF exposure assessment using a network monitoring application in different microenvironments across seven European countries, Environmental Research, Volume 270, 2025, 121029, ISSN 0013-9351, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2025.121029
by John Markakis | Jan 4, 2024 | News
SEAWave Webinar
This webinar will be an opportunity to learn about the recent results of the SEAWAVE project on exposure assessments and their analysis. The seminar will focus first on exposures induced by base station antennas. Various presentations will discuss and analyze frequency-selective measurements carried out in Europe, not only via spot measurement outside or inside buildings, but also while walking in commercial areas and in public places, during car journeys or on public transportation. Participation in this webinar is free but requires prior registration.
More information about the webinar and the way to participate, you can find here!
by Panos Chatziadam | Oct 13, 2023 | News
The 2nd CLUE-H meeting convened in Heraklion, Crete, Greece, hosted at the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH) premises. The event had a primary objective of providing a comprehensive overview of CLUE-H’s progress to date. Key topics and presentations during the meeting included:
EC DG SANTE & DG RTD Representatives:
- EU framework programs for research and innovation in Environment & Health presented by Rita Araujo.
- A brief update on the policy regarding electromagnetic fields and Council Recommendation, presented by Alexander Gabilondo.
- SHEER Opinion discussed by Theodoros Samaras.
CLUE-H Cluster Highlights:
- An overview was presented by SEAWave’s Theodoros Samaras.
CLUE-H Project Highlights:
- NextGEM presented by Nikolaos Petroulakis.
- GOLIAT discussed by Mònica Guxens.
- ETAIN overviewed by Anke Huss.
- SEAWave highlighted by Theodoros Samaras.
Working Group Sessions:
- WG1 – Science translation for policy and practice, led by SEAWave.
- WG2 – Data management and exchange, led by NextGEM.
- WG3 – Communication and Dissemination, led by ETAIN.
- WG4 – Experimental studies, led by NextGEM.
- WG5 – Exposure assessment, jointly led by GOLIAT and SEAWave.
Following these key sessions, several research scientists presented their findings:
- Gemma Castaño from GOLIAT shared insights on the use of communication devices among young people from a multicountry survey.
- Brahim Selmaoui, also from GOLIAT, discussed the impact of 3.5 GHz 5G signals on electrical brain activity in healthy volunteers, presenting a controlled randomized study within environmental levels.
- Mariateresa Allocca from NextGEM characterized a reverberation chamber-based 5G in vitro exposure system from a biological perspective.
- Erdal Korkmaz, also from NextGEM, presented instruments and emulating environments for 5G RF-EMF.
- Pieterjan De Boose from ETAIN focused on the numerical quantification of RF-EMF exposure of insects.
- Nekane Sandoval Diez, also from ETAIN, discussed the development of an open-access smartphone application for RF-EMF exposure assessment, providing an app description and pilot results.
- Serge Bories and Taghrid Mazloum from SEAWave introduced the DEVIN device.
- Christoph Böhmert, also from SEAWave, presented studies on 5G perception.
The meeting served as a platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration among experts and researchers in the field of electromagnetic fields and human health, contributing to the ongoing progress of the CLUE-H initiative.
by Panos Chatziadam | Aug 31, 2023 | News
The CLUE-H brochure is part of the communication and dissemination activities undertaken for this cluster. It has been developed as a simple and flexible tool to distribute online for reaching interested stakeholders and present the cluster’s aim and members.
Please click anywhere between the images to view and download the brochure.
by John Markakis | Jun 27, 2023 | News
BioEM2023 (Oxford, UK, https://www.bioem2023.org/) has been completed. SEAWave has participated with several oral and poster presentations.
The stage opened with the work “Traceable Absorbed Power Density Assessment System in the 28 GHz Band” (authors: Ninad Chitnis, Fariba Karimi, Arya Fallahi, Sven Kühn, and Niels Kuster) presented by Ninad Chitnis, from the WP4 of SEAWave.
Dr Myles Capstick from IT’IS Fountation (CH) presented the design of the animal exposure setup, which will be installed at ENEA (Rome, IT) in the near future (“5G mm-wave mouse exposure system based on reverberation chambers”, Myles Capstick, Beyhan Kochali, Isaac Alonso Marin, Niels Kuster).
A flash but very interesting presentation of the first results within WP10 (Risk Communication) of SEAWave was given by Sarah Link from IU Internationale Hochschule (Erfurt, DE). Sarah presented her poster entitled “How much am I exposed? Exploring public perceptions of EMF exposure from mobile Communication technology and 5G” (authors: Sarah Link, Marie Eggeling, Ferdinand Abacioglu, Christoph Böhmert). This poster was awarded the 1st Student Poster Award in Sarah Link. Well done Sarah!
During the poster session Dr Serge Bories from CEA (Grenoble, FR) presented the “Performance Evaluation of DEVIN at a Low Sampling Frequency” (authors: Taghrid Mazloum, Serge Bories, David Dassonville).
A joint publication from IT’IS, SPEAG, ZMT and ETH was presented by Dr. Myles Capstick titled “A 5G FR2 Human Skin Exposure System Implementing Subject Self Control Paradigms” (authors: Dr Myles Capstick, Dr Cosimo Fortunato, Dr Erdem Ofli, Mr Beyhan Kochali3, Mr Isaac Alonso Marin, Prof Niels Kuster) which detailed the development of a 5G millimeter wave exposure system at 27.5 GHz for human provocation experiments.
Another SEAWave contribution to the BioEM2023 conference came from the leader of WP1, Prof Joe Wiart (Telecom Paris – IP Paris, FR), who presented the results of the first interlaboratory measurement campaign that took place in Thessaloniki (GR) in December 2022 in the poster “Comparison of Measurement Systems on Conducting RF-EMF Drive Test Campaign in Greek Urban and Suburban environments” (authors: S. Wang, W. Ben Chikha, Y. Zhang, J. Liu, M. Christopoulou, E. Karabetsos, A. Manassas, S. Iakovidis, C. Apostolidis, D. Babas, T. Samaras, J. Wiart).
The final SEAWave contribution to BioEM2023 came from a joint team effort by AUTH and ENEA presented by Prof. Theodoros Samaras with the title “Electromagnetic macro-dosimetry of murine skin at millimeter waves”, (authors: Serafeim Iakovidis, Dr. Emiliano Fratini, Dr. Simona Leonardi, Dr. Caterina Merla, Dr. Rosanna Pinto, Dr. Simonetta Pazzaglia, Dr. Mariateresa Mancuso, Prof Theodoros Samaras).
