Exposure limits

10 W/m² incident power density, adopted from ICNIRP 2020 by ARPANSA RPS S-1 and binding through licence conditions and the ACMA device standard.

1 × 10^7 µW/m² · 2–300 GHz · general public

Sleeping-area grades with ground reference: below 1 V/m no anomaly, 1–5 weak, 5–50 strong, above 50 V/m extreme; body voltage below 10 mV is 'no anomaly'.

1–50 V/m · power frequency and harmonics · sensitive

Sleeping-area grades at 50/60 Hz: below 0.2 mG no anomaly, 0.2–1 mG weak, 1–5 mG strong, above 5 mG extreme.

0.2–5 mG · power frequency and harmonics · sensitive

Above 1000 µW/m² peak from a single RF source in a sleeping area is graded 'extreme anomaly' and triggers a remediation recommendation.

1,000 µW/m² · per single RF source, peak · sensitive

Below 0.1 µW/m² peak per RF source in a sleeping area is graded 'no anomaly' — a precautionary target eight orders of magnitude below the FCC limit.

0–0.1 µW/m² · per single RF source, peak · sensitive

100 µT magnetic flux density and 4 kV/m electric field for public exposure at 50 Hz, with 10 kV/m allowed on farmland and roads beneath overhead transmission lines.

100 µT · 0.025–1.2 kHz · general public

f/7500 W/m² (f in MHz), so 0.47 W/m² at 3.5 GHz and 0.77 W/m² at 5.8 GHz — the band that covers 5G mid-band and 5 GHz Wi-Fi.

400,000–2,000,000 µW/m² · 3000–15,000 MHz · general public

12 V/m, equivalently 0.4 W/m², across the FM, TV, and sub-3 GHz cellular and Wi-Fi bands — the strictest widely enforced national limit in that range apart from Russia's.

400,000 µW/m² · 30–3000 MHz · general public

100 µT (1000 mG) magnetic flux density and 5 kV/m electric field strength at power frequency, the values still in force across the EU.

100 µT · 50 Hz · general public

10 µW/m² at night for GPRS, DAB+ and WLAN-type sources, 100 µW/m² daytime, 0.1 µW/m² for sensitive individuals.

10 µW/m² · pulsed digital services · sensitive

1.0 mW/cm² power density averaged over 30 minutes — the band that covers most cellular, Wi-Fi and 5G frequencies in the United States.

1 × 10^7 µW/m² · 1500–100,000 MHz · general public

The most restrictive RF band in the FCC table — 0.2 mW/cm², equivalently 27.5 V/m — covering FM broadcast, TV and land-mobile services.

27.5 V/m · 30–300 MHz · general public

Frequency-dependent limit of f/1500 mW/cm², so the allowance rises with frequency across the low-band and mid-band cellular spectrum.

2,000,000–1 × 10^7 µW/m² · 300–1500 MHz · general public

5.0 mW/cm² averaged over 6 minutes for trained workers in controlled environments — five times the general-public allowance.

5 × 10^7 µW/m² · 1500–100,000 MHz · occupational

1.6 W/kg averaged over any 1 gram of tissue — the number quoted on U.S. phone SAR sheets — plus 0.08 W/kg whole-body.

1.6 W/kg · 100 kHz–6 GHz · general public

200 µT (2000 mG) for the public and 1000 µT occupational — five orders of magnitude above typical household background.

200 µT · 50/60 Hz · general public

1000 µT (10,000 mG) for workers — five times the public reference level, on the basis that an occupational population is informed, trained and supervised. It does not apply to the public or to a home.

1,000 µT · 50/60 Hz · occupational

10 W/m² incident power density averaged over 30 minutes and over the whole body — the reference level that 5G mid-band and Wi-Fi compliance is judged against outside the U.S.

1 × 10^7 µW/m² · 2–300 GHz · general public

Frequency-scaled reference level f/200 W/m², giving 4.5 W/m² at 900 MHz and 9 W/m² at 1800 MHz.

2,000,000–1 × 10^7 µW/m² · 400–2000 MHz · general public

2 W/kg averaged over 10 grams of tissue for the general public — a different averaging mass than the FCC's 1 g, which is why SAR numbers are not directly comparable between regions.

2 W/kg · 100 kHz–6 GHz · general public

0.08 W/kg for the general public and 0.4 W/kg occupational — the thermal basis from which every RF reference level is derived.

0.08 W/kg · 100 kHz–300 GHz · general public

1 W/m² (19.29 V/m) for base-station emissions — a tenth of the ICNIRP public reference level, and the limit that applies to 2100 MHz and 5G mid-band sites.

1,000,000 µW/m² · 2–300 GHz · general public

f/2000 W/m² (f in MHz) — 0.45 W/m² at 900 MHz and 0.9 W/m² at 1800 MHz, one tenth of the ICNIRP figure for the same band.

200,000–1,000,000 µW/m² · 400–2000 MHz · general public

The precautionary tier of Italian law, raised from 6 V/m to 15 V/m on 30 April 2024: it applies inside buildings occupied four or more hours a day and outdoors in intensively frequented areas.

15 V/m · 100 kHz–300 GHz · general public

The non-precautionary tier: 20 V/m (about 1 W/m²) as the exposure limit for public exposure to fixed installations between 3 MHz and 3 GHz, unchanged by the 2024 amendment.

20 V/m · 3 MHz–3 GHz · general public

3 V/m electric field strength for the population — the lowest broadcast-band public limit of any major jurisdiction, about a tenth of the FCC value.

3 V/m · 30–300 MHz · general public

10 µW/cm² (0.1 W/m², or 100,000 µW/m²) time-averaged power flux density — roughly a hundredth of the ICNIRP public reference level and the strictest national RF limit in wide use.

100,000–250,000 µW/m² · 0.3–300 GHz · general public

0.08 W/kg whole-body average, with peak spatially-averaged limits of 1.6 W/kg for head, neck and trunk and 4.0 W/kg for limbs — the same headline figure as the U.S.

1.6 W/kg · 100 kHz–6 GHz · general public

Frequency-dependent power density of 0.02619 f^0.6834 W/m² (f in MHz) — 4.56 W/m² at 1900 MHz and 5.42 W/m² at 2450 MHz, so Canada is somewhat stricter than ICNIRP across the cellular and Wi-Fi bands.

1,290,000–1 × 10^7 µW/m² · 300–6000 MHz · general public

10 W/m² (61.4 V/m) averaged over 6 minutes — the flat plateau above 6 GHz, identical to the ICNIRP figure.

1 × 10^7 µW/m² · 6000–15,000 MHz · general public

4–6 V/m at places of sensitive use depending on band — about 100 times lower in power density than ICNIRP's reference level.

4–6 V/m · mobile service bands · sensitive

1 µT (10 mG) magnetic flux density at places of sensitive use — the strictest power-frequency installation value in force in Europe.

1 µT · 50 Hz · sensitive

10 W/m² — the ICNIRP 2020 public reference level, made enforceable in the UK by the Ofcom EMF licence condition rather than by a UK-specific number.

1 × 10^7 µW/m² · 2–300 GHz · general public

The average daily exposure level above which pooled epidemiological studies report an association with childhood leukaemia, and the basis for the IARC Group 2B classification of ELF magnetic fields.

0.3–0.4 µT · 50/60 Hz · sensitive