What is the EMF exposure limit in Canada?

Question

What are Canada's RF exposure limits under Safety Code 6?

Answer

Health Canada's Safety Code 6 (2015) sets uncontrolled-environment reference levels of 0.02619 f^0.6834 W/m² with frequency f in MHz, which works out to 4.56 W/m² at 1900 MHz and 5.42 W/m² at 2450 MHz, rising to a flat 10 W/m² above 6 GHz. The underlying basic restrictions are 0.08 W/kg whole-body SAR and 1.6 W/kg peak spatially-averaged for head, neck and trunk — the same headline SAR figure as the United States. Safety Code 6 is issued as a guideline, but Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada adopts it for equipment certification, so in practice phones, base stations and broadcast antennas must comply.

Related records

• Health Canada Safety Code 6 (2015)

  Canada's RF exposure code from 3 kHz to 300 GHz, issued by Health Canada as a guideline and made effectively mandatory for wireless equipment through ISED's certification requirements.

  Standards & frameworks

• Safety Code 6 uncontrolled reference level, 300–6000 MHz

  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.

  Exposure limits

• Safety Code 6 SAR basic restrictions (uncontrolled)

  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.

  Exposure limits

• Health Canada

  Publishes Safety Code 6, the Canadian RF exposure code that ISED adopts as the basis for certifying phones, base stations and broadcast antennas.

  Organizations

Sources

1. hc-safety-code-6 Limits of Human Exposure to Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Energy in the Frequency Range from 3 kHz to 300 GHz (Safety Code 6) — Health Canada, 2015. guideline, link checked 2026-08-12.
2. hc-safety-code-6-pdf Safety Code 6 (2015), H129-48/2015E-PDF — official PDF edition — Government of Canada Publications, 2015. guideline, link checked 2026-08-12.