What is the EMF limit in Australia?

Question

What are Australia's RF exposure limits, and are they legally binding?

Answer

Australia applies ARPANSA's RPS S-1 (Rev. 1, 2021), which adopts the ICNIRP 2020 limits — 10 W/m² public incident power density above 2 GHz, with SAR-based basic restrictions below 6 GHz. It replaced RPS 3 (2002), which was based on ICNIRP 1998. The limits bite in two ways: RPS S-1 is in force as a licence condition for ARPANSA licence holders, and the ACMA's Radiocommunications (Electromagnetic Radiation — Human Exposure) Standard requires devices supplied in Australia to keep users within the ARPANSA basic restrictions.

Related records

• ARPANSA RPS S-1 (2021)

  Australia's RF standard for 100 kHz–300 GHz, aligned with ICNIRP 2020 and enforced through licence conditions and the ACMA device standard.

  Standards & frameworks

• Australian general-public limit, 2–300 GHz

  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.

  Exposure limits

• Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA)

  Australia's radiation protection authority, and one of the clearest public sources of measured base-station and Wi-Fi exposure data.

  Organizations

Sources

1. arpansa-rps-s1 Standard for Limiting Exposure to Radiofrequency Fields — 100 kHz to 300 GHz, RPS S-1 (Rev. 1) — Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, 2021. standard, link checked 2026-08-12.
2. acma-eme-standard Radiocommunications (Electromagnetic Radiation — Human Exposure) Standard 2014 — Australian Communications and Media Authority (Federal Register of Legislation), 2014. regulation, link checked 2026-08-12.
3. icnirp-2020 Guidelines for Limiting Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields (100 kHz to 300 GHz) — International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, 2020. guideline, link checked 2026-08-12.